Question:  We adopted our daughter 8 years ago. We have an open relationship with her birth mom, Jane, and visit a couple of times a year. Birth dad is out of the picture.

Jane got married a couple of years ago to a great guy, and their life is very settled. Joe loves kids, including our daughter, and we knew it was only a matter of time before they wanted to start a family.

Jane just told us she is pregnant, due in the fall. We are meeting up with her next month for a semi annual visit. We are all so excited!

Our daughter has, in the past, desperately wanted a sibling, and we’ve talked about that in the hypothetical. About how she would have a relationship with any other children her birth mom may have much like she has with her cousins who live across the country — they love each other dearly, they just don’t get to see each other as often as we’d like.

We are trying to anticipate the questions our daughter may have about a new sibling. We want to make sure that we answer as sensitively as possible. Some of the tougher ones that have crossed our minds are these: Continue reading Her Birth Mom Is Having a Baby. What Should We Anticipate? →

Question: Adoption in my country is closed because children are usually found at the hospital or mosque.  But some were put in the orphanage because their parents either divorced or there’s some reason that  the parents can not or will not take care of their children. In the old days these kids stayed in the orphanage. But in recent years we’ve begun placing them through adoption.

So because there’s no contact, too often there is also no openness.

I know from listening to adoptees that when these children grow older, they will want to know what happened. They may want to know their parents or at least information about their parents. I hear adoptees say that not knowing their truth causes grief and tears.

But some moms in the adoption support group I started have a psychological block. As I’ve written before, some refuse to acknowledge the kid was adopted (this is possible to do here because the children look Arab, just like their adoptive parents). The dissonance in these mothers is so great that some stop coming to our adoption support group meetings. They are the ones who need our support most.

How can I win back an adoptive mother like this before her child is grown? I am sure then she will be the one crying.

— Zilla

WHY Adoptive Parents Must Face the Truth

As you already know, Zilla, an adoptive mother needs to address her own insecurities and grief — in short, to address her own fragility — in order to help her child gather all their parts and integrate their identity. Not to do so is tragic for all, because the relationship between parent and child cannot be enduringly strong if it’s based on lies,  either those of omission or commission.

Continue reading Why & How Adoptive Parents Must Face the Truth →