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Open Adoption
 Open Adoption
Open adoption is best defined as the relationship that you have with your child and with their adoptive family. Essential to an open adoption is the exchange of fully identifying information, such as names, addresses, and phone numbers. Together, you and the adoptive family plan direct, continued contact. Open adoption allows you to build an ongoing relationship with the adoptive family and with the child you both love.
With open adoption, you have choices. The first is that you will select the adoptive family. It could be a family you already know or it could be a family that has already been approved by an adoption agency.
Selecting and Meeting the Parents
Once you have chosen a family, you will want to meet them, confirm your choice, and begin to build the kind of relationship that is necessary for an open adoption. How much contact you have with each other is up to you and the adoptive family. No two plans are the same because the people involved are not the same. What works for one adoption may not work for another.
Staying in Touch
Because you have a relationship with the adoptive family, both of you will want to plan the type and amount of contact that respects each other’s needs and wishes. When expectant parents and prospective adoptive parents mutually plan for the type of contact they want, they are more likely to honor the plan and to allow their relationship to develop and grow.
All relationships are dynamic—they grow and change with time. Most birthparents and adoptive families tell us that they not only trust each other, but see each other as extended family. As with any other relationship, it may take effort to make sure the relationship works, but everyone benefits when you have a respectful and trusting relationship.
 Peace of Mind
With open adoption, you choose the family who will love, raise, and protect your child. You know what they value and what they believe. You can watch your child grow and develop and be assured that you made the best possible plan at that time in your life. You can share your love with your child.
Adoptive parents benefit from open adoption too. They know you, what you are like, and how much love went into your decision making. They often love seeing how their child is like you or other family members, something that they would not know without an open adoption.
Most important, your child will benefit from an open adoption. By knowing you and by having you in his or her life, your child will know your love firsthand. You can answer questions about your child’s medical history, birthfamily, and reasons for making the decisions that you did.
Adoption is a lifelong journey for you, for your child, and for the adoptive parents.
View family profiles online
go to the birthparent forums
Read stories from Bethany birthparents
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