Open Adoption

Open adoption is much more common than it was 20 years ago. In previous generations it was common to “hide” the pregnancy, “give up” your baby in a closed adoption, then leave both the birthmother and the child wondering about one another years later.

Today open adoption is acknowledged for its many benefits to both the birthmother and the child. Adoption is a choice, and birthmothers now place their baby into adoptive families.

How does it differ from another recent term we’ve begun to hear, co-parenting? Co-parenting is common among divorced couples who share custody of their children. They must determine who is responsible for what and how each stay involved in the child’s life after the divorce. However, open adoption is deciding on the perfect “marriage” between two families, the adoptive family and the birthparents.

Open adoption provides numerous benefits to the adoptive family, the birthparents, and the child. In the book Open Adoption, Open Heart, Russell states, “My two kids are the best thing to ever happen to us, so it’s easy to say that’s the best thing about adoption. They are 4 and 5 years old now, and a day doesn’t go by that I don’t think about how lucky I am. It has also been wonderful to be able to make a difference in the lives of our children’s birth parents. My son’s birth mom is about to graduate from nursing school, and she tells us all the time how grateful she is for us. She doesn’t think she would have been able to do that if she had been raising a child (she was not quite 16 when she gave birth to our son)”.

That is the real story behind open adoption: the desire for a happy ending and the best thing for all involved. Adoption is the gift of life.