I admit that I don’t know much about open adoption because we have two closed adoptions. Our adoptions are closed. They are international adoptions. We are okay with that.
Do we talk to AJ about his birth mother? No. He can’t handle it yet. I wish he could but he can’t. We talk to him, instead about Russia. About the orphanage. About the country he came from, not about “where” he came from.
I wish I could because she is part of me too. No matter where my child is from his birth parents are a part of him and we need …read more

One of my favorite bloggers wrote a heartfelt post just under two years ago on how thankful she is for her beautiful and spirited daughter whom she relinquished for adoption at birth.
Please read her elegant words.

Today’s guest post is from yet another b5media writer and adoptee. Julie Bonner has an amazing birth story and journey.
 
Adoption has always been a close topic to my heart. I was adopted when I was 8 months old. I went back and forth for years when I was a teenager trying to decide if I wanted to search out my birth mom. I never took that leap of faith and I really didn’t realize why until I was older. It was because I was scared. I was scared that I would open myself and my family up to a relationship …read more

I met Michelle last year via the internet. I entered Bloggy Giveaway and won a beautiful white baby blanket with mint green stars. At the time we were in adoption limbo…between Guatemala and domestic so when she heard that baby Gus had the blanket with him as his transition blanket I think she cried.
If you put 5 families,formed by adoption in a room, you would hear 5 very unique adoption stories. If you were to ask those 5 families what the relationship with their child’s birthmother is, you would hear 5 unique relationships.
In my family’s case, in 2005 our lives …read more

Because this month is National Adoption Month I have asked some of my favorite bloggers to Guest Post here and tell their adoption stories. You all know my story; an international one. I thought you might want to hear from Foster Mothers, First Moms, Adoptees, and Moms who have adopted domestically. So, all month I will be bringing their stories to you.
Today we have our first Guest Post from Overwhelmed with Joy, a mother who adopted domestically. On her blog she calls him Snuggle Bug. You can also read about their foster daughter, Boo, whom they would like to adopt. …read more

The CNA has announced that the birth mother interview process will end on August 31. All interviews must be completed by that date or the case will be turned over for review.
Please see the CNA website or Guatadopt for more information.

This week marks the week that we traveled to Russia, three years ago. Can you believe that? It is hard for me to believe because we have encountered so much and everything in our lives has changed.
We don’t often talk with AJ about his adoption because it brings up memories for him that are very hard for him to process. We do talk to him about where he is from and we talk to him a little about Russia and the Desky Dom (orphanage) but we never actually talk with him about his birth mother or the actual process of …read more

I have a new philosophy. I’m only going to dread one day at a time.
Charles M. Schulz, Charlie Brown in “Peanuts”
There are days in our lives where we awaken delighted in what we are doing and there are days we awaken dreading what the sunshine will bring us. Most days we have control over the the kind of car we drive or what we eat…we even have control over what happens throughout the day. Should we answer that phone call or let it ring, pay the bills or forget about them until tomorrow?
What we don’t have control over is other’s …read more

Over the past few years NPR has offered up a fabulous series on adoption, not only stories and journals about adoptions covering domestic but also transracial, international, birth mother, and adoptee.
Their latest story is that of an orphan in the 1950’s.
In 1994 they presented The Many Faces of Adoption with four families out of the 1.6 million American families with adoptive children.

I have waited to post anything about the birth mother interviews in Guatemala because it is so hard for me to write about…so hard for me to think that Gus’s birth mother has to go back, yet again, and explain her situation to people who don’t know anything about her and her life.