I want to say that, in general, when it works, open adoption is great.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
Open adoption, when it works, is fabulous. But when it goes wrong, it's so traumatizing for everybody.
The process of open adoption is not discussed in the way it should be. Everyone I know who has adopted domestically has at least one tragic story. It was important to me to be able to describe those situations.
Adoption has been a part of my life and a part of my family, so it was how I wanted to start. It felt natural and right to me.
Adoption should be an empowering option for young women in crisis, knowing that the people around them - family, friends, church - will respect their choice.
I will say, in open adoption, all these choices you make about race, about the amount of mental illness you can deal with, about special needs and physical maladies, you have to lay all this out there before you know anybody's story.
If it gets to the point where I actually physically cannot have a child, there's plenty of children in the world that need a stable home and loving parent. I'm so down for adoption.
Adoption is a global issue these days - it's certainly current - and it's encouraging for a lot of couples whether they're straight or gay.
It would be a lie to say that people are coming to adoption with joy at all times. Hope, perhaps, but it would be disingenuous to say that every part coming to an adoption isn't seriously grieving.
I've never been keen on open adoption. It doesn't seem to solve the main problem with adoption, which is that somebody feels she was abandoned by someone else.
I say to everybody, 'Adoption is not for the faint of heart.'