9 Open Adoption Professionals Share What They Love Most About The Process

What we love most about open adoptions is knowing that everyone is
putting the child’s needs first — the best way to start any adoption story.

Meg Brown, Adoption Caseworker,

Adoption is a beautiful picture of redemption, and open adoption weaves a tapestry of relationships that encourages trust and honors a birthmother’s sacrificial decision. Openness celebrates the strength and grace required by all involved to journey through the adventure of adoption.

Children need families and loving role models in their life. I believe
adoption can be a loving and hopeful option that offers both mother
and child an opportunity to live an abundant life. I admire how open
adoptions are becoming a more common path for families to join
hands out of love for the child and respect for the birth parents’
courageous decision to choose adoption.

Debra Hanifin,

I love open adoption because it is a beacon of hope to the birthmother who deeply loves her child and wants to be a part of her child’s life; to the child
who will never have to wonder about her roots and is forever blessed with
an extended family; and to the adoptive couple who never has to explain
away the birthmother’s absence and can forever show the birthmother
their unending gratitude for giving them the beautiful gift of a child.

Steffany A. Aye, Founder and Director,

What I love most about open adoption, is the ability for a child to have answers to their questions about who they are, as they grow and develop through the years. My wish is that every adoptive parent (when possible) would take full advantage of this opportunity for their child.

Jeanne McGee,

What I love most about open adoption is how it can instantly sooth the fears and emotions that a women is feeling when considering adoption. Open adoption allows an incredible relationship to form between two families who both love a child so much that they would do anything and everything for that child. Open adoption is an experience that only a few special people have the ability to become a part of, and it will change every aspect of your life.

Candace O’Brien, 

For many years we have agreed that adoptive parents should make the adoption story part of their child’s life from the beginning. But for many adoptees questions remain about their birth parents: their personality,
why they made the decision to place them for adoption, their family tree,
their passions, their gifts, to name just a few of the questions.
The process of finding their birth parents later is often fraught with fear,
anxiety, guilt, shame. In open adoption situations, both parents (birth and adoptive) share in the love and a tacit acceptance and understanding that
“it takes a village”.

Michelle Keyes, Adoption Coordinator,

I love open adoption because it creates beauty and hope. I love that each
part of the triad is respected, loved, and able to heal in it’s own way. I love
that relationships are built and grow together, that there is no secrecy and
nothing is severed. I love helping to create new families with many
extensions!

Rachel Herndon,

Open adoption, when it works well, is a community coming together to love a child.  It provides an opportunity for birth parents to choose the right family for their child to grow up with, and for the adoptive family, to connect with the roots their child came from. Most importantly, it provides the adopted child a sense of belonging, a sense of a past and a future, and an honest story of fate and love working together on the child’s behalf.