Adoptive Parent Panel

We attended a meeting at our agency last night that was great! It was 4 adoptive families, sharing their stories.

All of the families had adopted at least two times through our agency, all with very high praise for the agency and staff.

Each of the 4 families had very different experiences, including some very difficult situations where birth families either struggled with their decisions to place their child for adoption, or actually chose to parent after the baby was born. There are endless possibilities of complications...birth fathers coming into the picture after the delivery, birth grandparents opposing adoption, in one case, law enforcement was involved because of trouble the birth mother had had in the past. On the other hand, these same families also experienced great adoptions, with another birth family, meeting, really connecting, getting to know the whole birth family and being a big part of the delivery.

Every single person said, that they absolutely don't regret their decision to adopt. Despite the hard things, they know they've ended up with the children God had chosen for them.

It was a good meeting, just being able to hear stories of what to expect from the process. Some of really scary, but mostly just exciting.

The topic of openness was discussed, and that also showed the wide range of relationships possible. It really helped explain it more to Kevin, who felt a bit more uneasy with the concept.

I just ordered 5 copies of a really good book explaining adoption to friends and family. "In on it: What adoptive parents would like you to know about adoption" It is written by a woman from St. Paul. I plan on offering it to our immediate families, but if any of you reading this are interested (it's pretty short) let me know! I'll pass the copies around as people finish them.

I am just finishing up our profile book. I'm making it at Snapfish.com. It will include info about our family, a letter to potential birth parents, and lots of photos of us, our families, friends and all of the things we love to do. It's taken me many hours to get it just right. We need 15 copies to give to the 5 offices of our agency, so they can show it to maybe a birth mother & father who would both like to bring a copy home. I'm hoping to finish today to take advantage of the 50% off coupon I have that expires today!!

Thanks for reading and supporting us!