The Door Is OPEN! Open Adoption. OpenSaysAdoption.

Hey all! We are hoping to raise most of the the $30,000 needed for the initial costs of adoption by July 25th. Donations can be made quick and easy online at our fundraising site. We really appreciate your considering to support us - we truly cannot do it without you!

So last week I made a post addressing the question of "When's the Baby Due?" in which I gave the rough schedule of the adoption process and then established myself as a potential competitor with Merriam-Webster with my near straight up adoption glossary. 

One of the terms that I introduced was "open adoption" which I followed up with a note that I would write a blog post to more fully explain what that term means.

Then I attempted to make a blog post about open adoption and couldn't think of a catchy title. So I opted for quantity over quality and just gave the post 3 crappy titles. Let's hope this post lives up to its quantity title.

And so, here we are.

The concept of "Open Adoption" may be very new to many people, (it was to us!) and it can also initially sound scary (it did to us!). What open adoption means is that the adoptive parents and biological parents get to meet both before and after the adoption placement. It means that, in the most ideal situation where everyone involved is comfortable with it, there might be a continued relationship through letters, phone calls, even possibly visits after the child has been placed in our family.

Psychologists, researchers, social workers (etc.) have all found that a child who is adopted tends to feel more whole and healthier if they know more about their biological parents. I have some completely incidental evidence from adopted friends that would agree with that. Biological parents are also more whole and healthier if they are able to have, at the least, the basic knowledge of the well-being of the child they gave for adoption. There are also a bunch of additional advantages to open adoption that I am going to straight up lift from Cradle website and post here:

Open adoption benefits for the child:

• A clearer sense of identity
• Understanding they are loved by their birth family and why they chose adoption
• Ready access to information about their medical and social history
• Access to biological siblings, if there are any

Open adoption benefits for adoptive parents:

• Knowledge that birthparents chose adoption freely and willingly
• A feeling of entitlement and being personally entrusted to raise the child
• Dissolution of fantasies about birthparents or fear of the unknown
• Greater ability to answer the child's questions about his or her origins
• Ongoing access to birthhparents' medical and social histories

Open adoption benefits for birthparents:

• An opportunity to personally answer their birth child's questions about his or her adoption
• Reassurance of knowing the child is safe and thriving.

To clarify - it does not mean that there is "co-parenting" going on. It simply means that if given the chance, we would be happy to have the child know where s/he came from and not have some sort of "mysterious" part of his or her past for which no one has an explanation.

So, cool. There you are.

And in case you forgot since it was all the way at the beginning of this post - we could really use your help to get started with the process! $

Love, The Garcias