Open Adoption. How does it work?

Question

Open Adoption. How does it work?

Answer 1

As the first person said, you and the adopting parents make an agreement regarding how much contact you have, if any, with the child.  Typically it is pictures and letters but, there are cases where the birth mother is in fact, involved in their lives and gets to visit.  You obviously have no control over how the child is raised but, you can see them.

Answer 2

It depends on how open the birth mother and the parents agree upon.  Usually open adoption the birth mother gets pictures and letters.  Sometimes though it involves even more contact, but is agreed upon before hand.  It's all done through an attorney or an agency.  Usually the mother picks the parents through interviews, etc.  You can even choose a family say that has pets or goes to a particular church, etc.

Answer 3

It totally depends on the birthmother and adoptive parents. With mine I actually became friends with the adoptive parents and became sort of part of the family. They were there for me through everything and even after it was over they were there and still are to this day. My son passed away from SIDS and they actually had me at the funeral and I was part of everything. You can have as much contact and be as much a part of your childs life as you and the adoptive couple you chose agrees apon.

Answer 4

Well in my experence with my frist daughter I got to pick from a big book of people. saying where they live, if they smoke, drink, if there christins, and stuff about them.

then you decided and you meet up with the people u want to adopt your kid. you get to ask them questions exc.. Actually I met up with beth and brian about 6 times on our own to talk about everything.

Then after you have your child it goes into foster care for about a month and then goes with the adoptive parents. I forgot how long but you will have to go to court with the adoption agencys lawyer and tell them that you understood everything that they told you and that you know that you are giving up your rights.

and then depending on how you set it up with the adoptive parents i mean you could meet up with them once a month and have them call you and send you emails or whatever you decide.

also i went through luthern social services and they were really great but if you are going to decide to give your child up for adoption i would suguest going through an adoption agency.

Answer 5

In my situation (as a birth mother) we told our counselor what we wanted in parents for our child, and she met with a counselor who works with the adoptive parents.

They discussed and found good matches, and we got to look through profiles that each set of adoptive parents made (included stuff they like doing, a bit about them as a couple and as individuals etc. - nothing with their names, but they did include pictures).

We chose the ones we liked, and met with them.

We were given time to choose which ones, and given the option to see more.

At that point, it is quite different in each situation. We choose to keep in touch with the adoptive parents, and went out to meet them again a few times.

When the baby was born, we chose to have the parents come to the hospital directly afterwards to meet their new son (but the options about this are just about endless).

We signed a lot of papers... papers saying that we would keep in touch a certain amount of time, papers saying that those previous papers were not legally binding, more papers about the fact that we were signing the child away, papers saying that we had time to change our minds... papers papers papers!

They took the baby home directly from the hospital, and we had a full week to change our minds. Then, after that week passed, we signed MORE papers!! 6 months after he was born, we recieved papers saying that it was all official.

We've kept in touch quite often since his birth 8 years ago.

It is the parents decision how to raise him, how to tell him that he is adopted and who we are as birth parents. We are lucky that they have told him since his birth who he is and who we are and so on. We get together with them quite often as well, and have a great time together.

We are very blessed on both sides of the story - we are accommodating to their wishes, and they are accommodating to ours. So, I know that he may get uncomfortable with us as he gets older, and I have to be prepared for that.

I know that this is only one story, and there are hundreds of other ways this story could have ended up. Please feel free to contact me if you have any other questions!!

This all took place in Canada, so laws or procedures may be different in the US.

Answer 6

There can be varying levels of openness in adoption.  It can range from writing the yearly letter & sending a picture to the biological mom to having her be an integral part of your daily life and anywhere in between.

There are pluses & minuses to each level of openness.  Go over in your heart and mind how much openness you're comfortable with and make a decision based on those convictions.

Answer 7

well my little brother's adoption is open and it simply means that you are able to sent pictures and gifts on holidays and birthdays.. and have contact to a certain limit.

Answer 8

http://www.openadoptionsupport.com/