What?s one trait that all adoptive parents possess" We don?t know our child?s whole story. But with open adoption on the rise, we?re learning how valuable it can be to share what we can with our kids.
Openness is common in private infant adoptions?US figures show that 95 percent of American adoptions currently allow for some openness between birth parents and adoptive families. But it?s also increasingly happening in the public system, and there?s a growing interest in having some degree of openness in international adoptions, too. Openness doesn?t necessarily mean that you?ll be celebrating birthdays and holidays with your child?s birth family, particularly if the history is complicated. From simply telling your child that she has a different ?tummy Mommy? to having regular visits with birth and foster family members, there?s a wide spectrum of openness.
?Every family will have a different answer about what it means for them,? says Kathryn Connors, a parent liaison for Adopt4Life, Ontario?s Adoptive Parents Association. ?For me, it?s letting the children?s birth and history be part of their story. When you respect that history, you?re respecting them.?
Research on open adoption is largely based on data collected from two projects in the US: the Minnesota/Texas Adoption Research Project (MTARP) and the California Long-Range Adoption Study. Generally, these studies have found that openness reduces the fears of adoptive parents and improves the ov...