Comments on: More on the interview!

By: brave

brave — Sat, 19 Aug 2006 22:36:00 +0000

open adoption is not considered fringe — it’s the very much the mainstream of adoption. - both domestic and internation, frankly. I am hard pressed to think of an expert who doesn’t validate open adoption (and the varieties of)

In my not so humble opinion, adoption attorneys probably will be less excited about facilitating logistics of open adoption support because they are lawyers not social workers. they focus on contracts, legalities, local laws, etc.

This is why adoption agencies — in the “business” of child welfare — are so important. They have the skills, desire, and participants of the triad to set up support and education groups of all kinds. Their primary goal is to serve the pregnant woman, regardless of her plans, to parent or place, and the child after it is born.

To me, open adoption really asks for more funding for adoption agencies and move away from attorney-only adoptions.

By: speakingformyself

speakingformyself — Sat, 19 Aug 2006 06:03:40 +0000

Sad sigh.

I attempted to put my bdaughter’s adoptive mom in touch with the Kinship Center some years back (when I discovered my bdaughter was dealing with “adoption related abandonment” after the adoption’s second closure).

They are within minutes of the center, so I had Brenda email her with the info with a nice note. Unfortunately, the response was fury.

Gosh, I never knew these educators were considered fringe … maybe I read that wrong. I’ll reread it.

Open adoption support groups are a much needed idea … all the triad members need it. It would be great if the kids could get support, as well … those who were adopted, and their siblings … both in the adoptive family and those raised in the birthfamily.

By: Shannon

Shannon — Sat, 19 Aug 2006 01:23:20 +0000

You know what I wish, though? I wish there was more support for first parents, specifically, in open adoption. Because I think we might have more contact (as we’d like) if Rose had more help from the agency on her side of things. There must be lots of first parents in situations where they may not have a phone, may not have transportation, and may need some help getting to visits discretely. I’d like to see agencies be more proactive about finding out what material and practical things could be needed to maintain openness–and working with first parents to provide them.

By: Jill

Jill — Fri, 18 Aug 2006 19:01:44 +0000

Hi, Dawn. I think your idea of starting a local support group is a great idea.

By: Lisa V

Lisa V — Fri, 18 Aug 2006 14:06:01 +0000

The two lawyers in this area who are usually used for adoption, will not work with open adoption. I do my best to discourage anyone from using them.

This sounds like a really cool idea. Now get one of these bigwigs to put on a conference and bring the speakers and authors and that would be great.