Open Adoption: A Modern Family

The adoption process strives to serve the best interests of children should be the main focus in deciding all issues of adoption policies and practices. The adoption policy should always focus on finding the best parents for children who are in need of homes. This process helps someone join another’s family and should not be a defining characteristic or lifelong process. People who are adopted as infants grow up as healthy and productive as people who are raised in their own biological families. In November of each year, the President of the United States issues a proclamation to announce National Adoption Month. This is a time that is dedicated to raising awareness for the need of adoptive families and to encourage citizens to become involved in the lives of children and youth that are in the foster care system.

“I want to be like my adoptive mother, but my birth mother says I’m like her. I don’t know what to do or who I am. My whole life is messed up. It’s not my fault. It can’t be fixed,” said a girl adopted into an open adoption (Byrd). An open adoption is a process in which the birth parents and the adoptive parents know each other and are involved in the adopted child’s life. A closed adoption is when there is no contact at all and no identifying information is given between birth and adoptive parents (Byrd). While both are common to today’s society, closed adoptions allow opportunities for the adoptive parents to raise their kids without the interference of birth parents (Bender).

Adoptive Families are special; they have a desire to grow their families by reaching out to children that need homes. These families face many unique challenges, but also receive many rewards, associated with the decision to adopt. These challenges continue for many families, through the process of adoption, legal finalization, and for many years post-adoption. The challenges are different in many ways from those faced by biological parents. Adoptive parents not only face the normal challenges faced from raising a child, but also the psychological issues of the child/ren adopted. Some children placed for adoption have social, psychological, or physical problems that many adoptive families may not be able to address. Previous research has shown an association between post adoption services and successful adoptive placements. “Post adoption services often respond to the effects that separation, loss, and trauma can have on children and youth who have been adopted. They can facilitate adjustment processes; promote child, youth, and family well-being; and support family preservation” (Child Welfare Information Gateway, 2012). It is because of these issues, and many others, that placement agency must consider when providing wrap around services for families.

Many potential adopted parents have experienced heartbreak, anguish and other problems that can be associated with adoption. There is an imbalance in the Nations foster care system and the system needs to be strengthening and the quality of services improved.

In the 1960s, adoptees began The Adoption Reform Movement to make sealed adoption records accessible. Before then, traditional or closed adoptions were thought to be the best option for everyone involved in the adoption triangle. This triad consists of the adoptee, adoptive parents, and biological parents. In a closed adoption, the adoptee is not allowed access to medical records and does not know their birth parents. Prior to the reform, people did not consider the ethical or moral problems that would arise from these kind of adoptions. The belief was that sealed records would protect everyone, but this is not the case. As adoptees grew into adults, the demand for more information on their birth parents increased. This led to the debate of whether or not adoptees were entitled to know the identity of their biological parents. The opposition from birth mothers appeared almost immediately after the reform set about. These mothers were not ready to give up their own rights to make the decision between open or closed adoption. Even though biological parents have the ability to choose, adoptees have the right to know their biological parents because of the search process being emotionally damaging, their need to access medical records, and their development as a child.

Not many children who are put in closed adoptions get to know who they are and their family history. Closed adoption children do not get to know any of their historical background, and this sometimes gives children self-esteem issues (“Adoption Emotional Issues”). They can also deal with loss and grief issues at times because they do not have their biological parents around to help raise them. It is not until the age of eighteen for the child to legally find their biological parents on their

The aim of this study is to evaluate the Adoption and Safe Families Act of 2007. This act provides children waiting in foster care with permanent families through adoption. The states increased the number and proportion of adopted children that received adoption assistance because the child had a special need. The article goes over administrative data that indicates that states more diligently recorded the special needs of children as well as post adoption financial support and assistants. The paper reviews how some states found themselves in the contradictory position of promoting adoption while simultaneously cutting post- adoption support. In the next section of the article it outlines federal adoption incentives and funding for post- adoption

Plenty of information about adoption is misunderstood or not known at all. Numerous individuals do not know the difference between a closed adoption and an open adoption and the pros/cons that accompany these different types of adoption. “Confidential (closed) adoption is where the birthparents often do not know the identity of the adoptive parents and could not maintain any contact with the child or adoptive family after placement.” (9-NP) The problems in a closed adoption are more than just a lack of information. (5-31) One situation that most people take for granted is knowing his or her family history. This is something that adopted children in closed adoption don’t get. (5-30)Nearly all the time, files are physically sealed in a closed adoption. (3-NP) Up until the late 1980’s closed adoptions were considered a regular occurrence. (3-NP) Harold Grotevent, a University of Minnesota professor, has been working with 35 adoption agencies for the last 2 decades and has said there’s been a clean-cut swing from closed to open adoption. (6-NP) “Open adoption refers to the sharing of information and/or contact between the adoptive and biological parents of an adopted child, before and/or after the placement of the child.” (9-NP) Open adoption has become a considerable alterative to abortion or single

The arguments made by the authors will help me counteract my hypothesis in my paper and change my thought in regards to adoptees being “worse off” than those who are not adopted. These arguments help me explain the meaning of my idea in that my thinking might be to rash or stark. There are in fact pros and cons to the issues that adoptees may face and the ways that they or their families handle their

Based on statistics gathered by the United States Department of Health and Human Services Children's Bureau, approximately 46,000 children found homes through the foster care system last year alone (Cumpston, 8b). It is hard to imagine that there is this unbelievable number of children adopted in just one year, and the process is still different for every family who goes through it. Only after much research, can one conclude that while handling an adoption, a process known as open adoption is the most beneficial for everyone alike.

This has caused me to want to further research the issue. What are the social and emotional effects that adoption has on children?

Duncan, as is proven typical of other adoptees, has also experienced the common need to express her adoption story, only to be let down at the un-interest of peers. Misunderstanding often exists as a residual psychological effect among adoptees (Eldridge, 91).

In the last four decades, the concept of the American family has undergone a radical transformation, reflecting society¡¯s growing openness. Among all segments of society, there is a greater acceptance of a variety of family structures ¨C from single parenting to blended families to same sex parenting of children. The introduction of openness into the process of adoption offers new opportunities for children in need of a parent or parents and prospective parents wishing to create or expand their families. Meeting the requirements to become eligible to adopt no longer means being constrained by the conventions of an earlier generation.

When the average American citizen today thinks about the concept of adoption, what images are typically the first that come to mind? Although different people are sure to have equally as different experiences in this field, one picture continues to remain the most commonly-accepted. This image consists of a man and a woman who cannot have children of their own, a newborn baby, and a single mother who will certainly be unable to provide for the infant due to her young age, lack of financial support, or another variety of unfortunate circumstances. Making the decision to adopt a child is without a doubt one of the best options available for couples who are unable to conceive, but by thinking of adoption as nothing more than the fallback

     Adoption is metamorphosing into a radical new process that is both sweeping the nation and changing it. But this process is not an easy one, there are many steps to go through. Through research it is made a lot easier. Adoption is a also a highly visible example of a social institution that has benefits from and been reshaped by both the Internet and the exponential growth of alternative lifestyles, from single to transracial to gay. It is accelerating our transformation into a more multicultural society; even as it helps redefine out understanding of “family.” The process includes three main steps including a type of adoption, the techniques for location a baby for adoption, arranging