In the 1950's single mothers had few options if they became pregnant. Often, they were whisked away to homes where they were forced to sign their babies away never knowing who the parents were or given time to see their babies. This causes a surge of adopted children to come back years later looking for their birth mothers or insisting on their rights to their medical and genetic history. There are still many out there searching, trying to find their roots and have some sense of identity of where they came from and who they are.

Open adoption seeks to limit those issues that closed adoption caused by allowing the birth mother to meet and interact with the prospective adoptive parents before and after the birth. Some families are committed to keeping the birth mother involved, in which case, the open adoption becomes a new family arrangement that seeks to put the needs of the child first.

Open Adoption Families Although open adoption only means that the birth mother and the adoptive parents exchange information on themselves, it can lead to other arrangements where the birth mother is more involved. It is understood, however, that the birth mother has relinquished all parental and legal rights to the adoptive family. Thus, the fear that a birth mother will try to reclaim a child is minimal. Some families like to invite the birth mother to special occasions like Christenings. Others even have the relatives of the child visit with the birth mother. It all is a personal choice and is not required in open adoptions.

Open adoption can provide the following advantages to closed adoptions, although each situation is different:

1. Children can ask a birth mother directly why they were put up for adoption.
2. The adoptive parents and children can have access to medical records and genetic information that allows them to keep good health records.
3. Birth mothers have the option to participate in the adoption planning, even getting to choose who the adoptive parents will be.
4. The birth mother can be assured she has made a good decision placing her child up for adoption.
5. The adoptive parents can be screened to meet legal requirements.
6. The birth mother can receive assistance from the adoptive parents before and after the baby is born.
7. The birth mother can request information or on-going contact in the form of letters, pictures of her child, and/or phone calls.
8. The child can meet birth relatives too and thus establish a larger support system wider than their adoptive family.
9. The child knows where they came from and can even be exposed to their heritage and culture through the birth parents.
10. It allows the child to be able to process losses associated with adoption without making it a lifelong quest for truth.

A History Of Open Adoption

Open adoption was prevalent in the 1920's with social agencies not being involved too much. This led to fears that birth parents were advertising their children and placing them in unsuitable homes or selling them outright. The laws for closed adoptions and agency interventions didn't come around until the 1940's and 1950's. Many years later, the fallout from closed adoptions became apparent with many adopted children seeking their birth parents or their genetic and medical history.

Lawyers actually started the movement back to open adoptions by providing an independent agency that would make sure the laws were followed in adoption proceedings and speeding up the adoption process. In many of these cases because it was done in a lawyer's office the parents and birth mother did get to know each other. But, they had high failure rates because of the emotional and social issues of adoption.

By then, the social standards had softened and single mothers no longer were thought of as a shameful secret. Many began keeping their children and fewer children actually were released for adoption. This caused agencies to change so as to meet the concern by mothers that their children were being placed in good homes and would be treated well. If they did not change, fewer adoptions were processed. So, open adoption is becoming more and more the norm. It is a good way to ease the losses of the child, the birth parent, and the infertile adoptive parents and can provide benefits for all.

Tags: adoption agency, Adoption Announcement, Adoption General Information

The pain of giving up a child for adoption can be lessened with open adoption. In open adoption, the birth mother can interview prospective parents and decide who the birth parents will be. The birth parent can be just a single mother or it can include the father in the decision-making. Either way, their one concern is that the baby be placed in an adoptive home where it will be well cared for and have the best chances for its future.

The tools birth parents use to evaluate prospective adoptive parents:

• Resume
• Photos
• Phone Call
• Interview

The Resume

Unlike a job resume the adoptive resume consists less of vital statistics and more of the personal attributes and view of life of the adoptive parents. In it there should be a letter, which should begin "Dear Birth Mother" and indicate why the parents are seeking adoption and their views on open adoption. It should include personal information like the type of neighborhood, hobbies, relatives, education and home life. This gives the birth mother a good idea of how committed the family is to adoption and what types of resources her child will have growing up.

Photos

As corny as the old adage is, a picture is still worth a thousand words. Close-up photos of the birth parent are important, but so too are the pictures of siblings, pets, household, neighborhood, and special occasions. Here a prospective adoptive couple can get very creative in conveying just how wonderful their life is and how they have much to offer an adopted child. The birth mother will want to be able to picture her child in the happy, loving home of its adoptive parents.

Phone Call

Before a face-to-face interview is scheduled, often a phone call is set up by the adoption agency or lawyer. This is usually a conference call and questions are sometimes scripted so that all prospective adoptive parents get the same questions. If the birth mother feels there is a potential match, she can request an interview.

Interview

The birth parent interview with the prospective parents may be held at a restaurant with the prospective parents understanding they are to pay for the meal. The counselor helping the adoption process will most likely also be there. This is the time when birth parents can assess if the family is a really good match with more in-depth questions than what were given in the phone interview.

After this entire process, there are a variety of factors a birth mother will evaluate in choosing the new parents. Many focus on education, religion, and the stability of the home. They prefer to know that their child will have a good chance at being well-educated and that the family doesn't move around too often and the marriage is sound. She will be anxious to know their views on open adoption and how much contact they will allow her after the adoption takes place.

The deciding factor in all these communications can end up being the fact that birth parents are musically inclined, like the birth mother, or have hobbies and skills that the birth mother appreciates. It's hard to tell what will swing the vote, but mostly both adoptive parents and birth mother can tell upon the interview if they are a good match without hesitation.

Another set of factors may be the cultural heritage of the couple or their expressed religious faith. If it closely matches the birth mother's values, the birth mother will know her child is being raised in a similar environment to her own. Language barriers may also be a reason why a birth mother chooses close to her own culture, plus the understanding that the child will have good roots in a family that can support it, but also roots in its ethnicity and people.

There are many ways a birth parent chooses the family for her baby. It is a long and involved process but one that can bring a sense of peace to the birth mother and the joy of a new child to adoptive couples. Establishing good, honest communication during the adoption process between the birth parent and the adoptive parents is a skill they will need to continue on with a process that can last a lifetime.

Tags: adoption agency, domestic adoption

It was March of 1996 that the first draft of this checklist was placed online. It has been used by thousands since then and, with the feedback received since 1996, it has been shortened and simplified. There are now 5 questions most easily answered by using the yellow pages, or other agency advertisements such as web pages, and then 11 questions that will probably require a phone call to the agency. There is no difference if you are placing a child you are expecting or if you are wanting to adopt a child into your family. Either way you must select the agency very carefully for the sake of your child.

You must also be concerned as to how the adopting parents of your child, or the birthmother of your child, will be treated by the agency you select. It is a VERY important decision. As you are calling agencies and asking questions about the issues from this checklist, it is very possible that the staff will recognize that you are using this checklist. Do not let that distract you from the critical issues addressed in the checklist. Just acknowledge that you are using the "openadoption.org checklist" and that you want to go over the issues one by one. The issues are infinitely more important than the source of the checklist you are using. The way agency staff treat you, and your concerns, will tell you as much about an agency as the written agency policies.

A PDF copy of the Adoption Agency Selection Checklist for printing can be found at www.openadoption.org/checklst.htm It will print out to one page and have 4 columns to compare multiple agencies. You may then take notes on the printed copy as you study agency advertisements and call agencies. Adoption Agency Selection Checklist  After studying the www.openadoption.org web pages to understand the issues involved, this form can be used to compare four agencies. The more ?Yes? answers to the questions that follow the better an agency is. Few agencies will get ?Yes? answers to all 16 questions, and some questions are more important.

1. Do the agency web site & advertisements make it clear that the agency only does fully open, fully identified adoptions?

2. Is this agency easy to drive to from your home?

3. Do you have a friend who knows or has used this agency and gives it a very high recommendation?

4. Are there other agencies in your local yellow pages who have much larger yellow page ads under the adoption heading?

5. Is the agency a church affiliated agency or is it over 30 years old?

Most of the above questions can be answered from agency web sites, yellow pages, and other advertisements without calling the agency. The questions below will probably require a call to the agency, but count it as extra good if positive answers can be found in agency advertisements. Count it as negative if there is any hesitation by agency staff on the phone in answering these questions.

6. Does the agency encourage maternity client parenting and offer free support and guidance in parenting?

7. Did agency staff accurately define open adoption as involving no secrets between birth and adopting families, and ongoing, direct, in person contact between them?

8. Did agency staff make it clear that they prefer to do fully open adoptions and rarely, if at all, will they serve an adopting family wanting less than a fully open adoption?

9. Does the agency strongly recommend, or even require, several counseling sessions by their staff before a maternity client starts considering the selection of a family for their child?

10. Does the agency always allow maternity clients selecting a family for their child to be able study every waiting family available through the agency for their child, and almost never limits maternity clients to selecting from a few waiting families chosen by agency staff?

11. Does the agency encourage matching between birth and adopting families who live close enough to each other for easy visits?

12. Does the agency have resumes by families adopting that are fully identified, with full names and addresses as well as local phone numbers on them, freely available for the selection process?

13. Does the agency provide a copy of their adopting parent fee agreement with clearly stated policies both about refunds and that donations cannot be accepted during the adoption process?

14. Does the original fee amount also cover all birthmother expenses anticipated with the agency paying any extra expenses?

15. Is agency a member of the Child Welfare League of America?

16. Is the race of the child expected one of the last questions asked?

Total the Number of "Yes" answers and compair.

About the Author: Email bbetzen@openadoption.org with any questions or comments. - Bill Betzen LMSW(Emeritus), Child placement social worker for 28 years with ten years spent expanding infant adoption services through open adoption. Active in supporting adoptee rights legislation at both the national and state levels. Adoption information.

Tags: adoption agency, Adoption General Information

Adoption agencies act as the link between couples and families seeking to adopt a child and families or couples seeking to place a child in care. Adoption agencies are important entities for these two categories of people since they handle the many legal complexities involved in placements and adoptions.

Adoption agencies work in two ways. The first emphasizes finding babies for the adoptive family, and the second is to find suitable adoptive families for babies put up for adoption. There are also two categories of adoption agencies. First is the increasingly common ?open adoption agency? and the second is the less popular ?traditional adoption agency.? The former type of agency allows the parents/caretakers of the child to meet and interact with the intended adoptive parents. This paves the pathway for the two families to get to know each other better, facilitating a healthy transition for the child. The latter category describes the conventional procedure, where the placement family?s information, as well as the adoptive family?s, are both kept confidential from each other. This has become a less common practice in the U.S.

It is better to work with a licensed adoption agency not only because of the hassle and the legal complexities, but also because individuals can be assured that they are reliable and trustworthy, due to the stringent criteria each agency has to fulfill prior to being granted with a license to operate.

Seeking the services of an adoption agency is a better option for several vital reasons. For instance, they cannot refuse to revisit your case after a placement since they carry the risk of being found liable for dishonest and unethical practices. All licensed agencies must meet minimum standards set by their states. Later, you can voice injustices or unsatisfactory behavior. They should have a well-qualified, trained, and experienced adoption staff from which you can benefit. If there are problems after placement, you can go back to an agency for help. This follow-up is usually offered at no extra cost.

Adoption agencies will also have a greater selection of families and children from which you may select, thus, resulting in the greater possibility of a good match.

Tags: adoption agency