Our Blog

  • 217+ Things to Do While You’re Waiting To Adopt

    What a difference a day makes. The other day one of our waiting parents asked me to upgrade their profile package because they wanted more exposure. I made the change and sent them a message letting them know the work had been done. When I didn’t hear back from them, I sent them a second email to make sure they got the message. “We did receive the link,” they wrote earlier this week. “However we will not need to renew.  We were contacted by our agency

  • 12 Things Waiting Parents Want Their Family And Friends To Know About The Holidays

    1. This is a difficult time for us. The holidays are a time to celebrate with family and friends. But while everyone else looks like they’re having a great time, we feel sad and frustrated because we don’t have a child to share them with. Plus, many people don’t understand what we’re going through, which makes it even harder to explain. 2. Getting together can makes us feel awkward. Maybe it’s because we’re the eldest child and feel that we

  • Open Adoption: What Those In The Know Want You To Know

    What was your biggest fear about open adoption? What was the spark that initially helped you to create a connection with your child’s birthmother or adoptive parents? How did you and your child’s birthmother or adoptive parents decide how much openness you wanted to have in your relationship? Do you believe an open adoption match is a stroke of luck, meant to be, or something else entirely? These are just a few of the questions we asked our Facebook fans as

  • “Open Adoption Is…” 30 Quotes From Our Facebook Community

    “Open adoption is…” what exactly? Since last month was National Adoption Awareness Month, we wanted to find out. Just before the month kicked off, we asked our Facebook community to complete the phrase “Open Adoption is…” We got some great responses, from all members of the adoption triad — adoptive parents, birthmothers and adoptees. Each day we posted a different one on our Facebook page, where we received even more responses. Just in case you missed them, here they are — all

  • You Know You’re An Adoptive Parent In An Open Adoption When…

    1. You get a kick out of people telling you that your child looks just like you even though you know she doesn’t. 2. The woman you once feared more than anyone else in the world isn’t only your new best friend, she’s the first person you think of when your child reaches a milestone. 3. While all the other mothers get asked about the cost of their baby stroller, you get asked about the cost of your baby, 4. You

  • The Moment I “Got” Open Adoption

    Do you remember the first time you “got” open adoption — the moment when it suddenly made sense to you, when you realized there was actually a purpose to all of your waiting, wondering and worrying? I do. It happened just over 16 years ago. As life-altering moments go, it wasn’t particularly special. It was actually kind of ordinary. There were no lightning bolt or voice calling down to me from on high. Just two women having a conversation on a couch.

  • Thinking Of Adopting? 10 Celebrity Adoption Quotes You Need To Read

    By rights we shouldn’t care what celebrities have to say about adoption. We really shouldn’t. We shouldn’t pay any more attention to what they say about the joys or the struggles of adopting than to what our friends or people we know say about them. But we do. Because the truth is most of our friends and people we know aren’t trying to adopt a baby or have an adoption connection. But many celebrities do. So when we see their

  • Finding My Zen State While Waiting To Adopt A Baby

    This guest post is by Sarah Farrar, a hopeful adoptive mother and blogger.  “Behind every exquisite thing that existed, there was something tragic.” –Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray I came across this quote by Oscar Wilde on a day when I was really struggling with finding what I like to call my “zen state” in regards to the adoption wait. Everything was feeling particularly unfair and hopeless. We all have those days and boy, was I having one. I

  • 10 Birthmother Stories Guaranteed To Change The Way You Look At Birthmothers

    There’s no other way to put it: Birthmothers have gotten a bum rap. While adoptive parents are praised for “saving” children, birthmothers are attacked for “giving them up.” But neither story gets it right. Like so many things in life, the reality is a lot more complicated. All adoptive parents aren’t saints and all birthmothers aren’t sinners. In much the same way that there are many different reasons why prospective parents turn to adoption, there are many different reasons why birthmothers choose to place.

  • Open Adoption: The Road Less Traveled, But The Right One For Us

    This guest post is by Shannon Guindin, a hopeful adoptive mother. I often think of our adoption story in terms of Robert Frost’s, “The Road not Taken.” In this poem, Frost states that two roads diverge in a wood, yet he cannot travel both. We, like Frost, came to a fork in the road when we faced infertility. My husband and I tried for three years to get pregnant and all attempts were unsuccessful. After trying on our own for six