How many of you have been involved in adoption?

I have. I'm an adopted mom. I brought my son home from the hospital 10 months ago. He's 10 months old today. Everything was pretty smooth. His first mom didn't want to even see him at first but now we have an open adoption. She sees him every 3 or 4 months. We had some trouble terminating the rights of his birth father but that was more legal stuff than his birth father actually wanting him. It turned out fine. We formally adopted him December 28. He's the cutest little boy ever. He's got 2 dimples, beautiful brown eyes, and the chubbiest cheeks ever.

I am a step parent to an adopted Chinese girl. She was 14 months at the time of adoption and is now 11....she has been through many splits in her life. Her adopted mother left the marriage for another man when she was first adopted. After their divorce, her dad and I met and married years later. She has been very much a handful. Has great potential to be a great kid but, is caught up in the mom's adult issues between the two households. She has self esteem issues and behavior stuff constantly going on. I only wish that I can have the power to help her...she doesn't have respect and is hard to deal with. A very sad story!!!

I guess if you should adopt, please, please, please be sure that you are in a good stable relationship, for the child's sake. They have already lived an unattached life, they need constant love and a good foundation!!!!!!

I'm not adopted myself, but one of my best friends is. She was adopted from Ireland when she was a baby, and raised by parents in Ohio. She's 19 now, and has recently found her birth parents. They talked for a while over email, and she went to visit them in Ireland fairly recently. They had given her up for heaps of reasons, because they had very little money in the family, and there was er, incest involved. She says her parents didn't really regret giving her up, because she had a better life with her adoptive family, but they also said that they thought about her often. They still talk through email, and as far I as I know, they get on pretty well.

I'm an adoptee that was adopted at the age of three after my birthmother relenquished me due to her substance abuse problems.

I had a horrible childhood & was adopted by abusive parents that had no buisness adopted a cat let alone a human. I was never given any normal childhood experiences. I've never had a birthday party, a sleepover, a birthday present, and every day I was reminded about how I came from a no good white trash crack w.hore

I was thankfully taken by child protection when I turned 11 and stayed in foster care until I hit 18.

I searched for & was reunited with my birthmother in 1996. Best day of my life. My mother had long since cleaned herself up & is now a great mother & person to me and my other 2 siblings (yes, I had siblings !! they were raised with her) She is now a typical middle class suburban wife.

I have long since turned my back on my adoptive family, and doubt I will ever speak or see them again. No regrets. I found everything I could've ever wanted with my birth family. Saddly I'll probably never find my birth father, and to be honest I don't think my mother knows who he is. But that's life

i think of you may do an adoption additionally. you may desire to compliment between a commonplace adoption the place you do no longer see your toddler or an open adoption the place you are able to truly be on your toddler's existence, yet your toddler won't could deal alongside with your and your ex's dating issues. You suggested your considerable concern with adoption is which you may consistently ask your self with reference to the toddler, yet you will do the comparable good element in case you have an abortion. i do no longer think of you go with for to stay something of your existence questioning in the adventure that your toddler replaced right into a boy or a woman, what it may've looked like, what that is character could have been like, and each 3 hundred and sixty 5 days the time your toddler could be born you would be questioning approximately how old it could have been, so i individually do no longer think of an abortion is what you may do. additionally ask your ex for his opinion because of the fact its basically as lots his toddler as that is yours. yet interior the top, it is your physique, your toddler and your selection. suitable desires.

My husband & I have been adoptive parents to 12 kids in last 15'ish years. We have 5 girls & 7 boys. They have come at various ages (4-15). There has been some very big heart ache for us and for them. But we have fun and chaos and love. Currently only 6 in school still @home and one adult with 2 beautiful grandkids live @home. We won't trade any of it. We love how our family is knit. The stories of how they have come to us are amazing. The stories of what they have been through are heartbreaking and horrifying. But the stories we still have to tell as family are what we look forward to. I like to read about adoptees experience, attitudes and lives because sometimes my own have trouble sharing with me. Maybe out of repression or fear of hurting my feeling, not really sure why. I do know my family is only different from others in size not in love and acceptance. I would highly recommend to any adoptive parent a book called "Twenty things adopted kids want their adoptive parents to know", very good insight. Thank for you interest in "different" families

I am an adopted adult. My adoption was closed, and I know nothing about my birth mother other than that she was short, bond, and was about 16 when I was born.

I have no real desire to find my birth parents, but I wish she knew how much I respect her for making such a difficult decision. (I assume my birth father did as well, but oddly, even trying to imagine another father is difficult) I think it is because I was adopted as an infant, and my adoptive parents (my real parents, in my opinion) are the only ones I've ever known. I do not tell everyone about my situation because really, I do not feel it really makes a difference, but my friends that do know are very understanding. In fact, my best friend from college was also adopted, which actually gave us something in common on which we could build a friendship.

I have a wonderful family who gives my unconditional love, something EVERY child, whether adopted or not, should have. I know a LOT of people on this site are so negative about adoption and it really upsets me. There are so many times when it is the right decision. Too many people who can't care for their children well can give birth, and people who would make great parents can't give birth, so I think adoption is the great equalizer. Just my 2 cents. :)

I was adopted at birth by parents who turned out to be very abusive and then my father committed suicide when I was 12. I had an older adopted brother who beat me, chased me with knives and tried to suffocate me constantly. I was sexually abused and was so happy to move out of home when I was 17 yrs old with my 1st real boyfriend. My mother was horrible to me and only now since I have become a mother to 5 wonderful kids has she tried to be interested or make amends with me. I don't talk to my brother and he lives in another state. I have been married for nearly 14 yrs now and am happy I turned my life around after such a crappy childhood.

i am an adoptee that was born to young parents with very troubled lives back then. they had wonderful hearts but was unable to care for me. addictions, family incest, fresh out of vietnam, just a list of issues that was diffcult for everyday life, let alone raising a child in that.

my adoptive parents were the real life version of ward and june. i had a stable secure life. i had everything i needed and almost everything i wanted. i was rather spoiled i must say. i was always the oddball, but that was just my personality. they were country and quiet and i was rock and roll and out of control. they thought i was nuts!

thats ok, they loved me anyway.

in my case it couldnt have turned out better. i was adopted for the right reasons to the right people. i have found both my bioparents and simply think they are the most wonderful people on earth. i love them with all my heart and respect the choice they made for me. they have since taken care of the problems they had and became fantastic people. i couldnt be prouder of them.

overall i am one of the most fortunate adoptees you will ever meet. i dont harbor anger or hostility, i respect ALL my parents for what they gave me in my life, i am lucky.

many do not have my happy story, i learned that here. it makes my heart ache that i was given so much and so many have pain associated with adoption. why i was so fortunate and others so unlucky is beyond me. but this is the reason reform is needed. and we are working on that.

I am an adoptee. I was placed with my family as an infant. I couldn't asked for a better situation. I have three siblings who are much older than me. My oldest niece is only 3 years younger so we grew up more like siblings. Like most families we have had our shares of up and downs but overall we are very close and loving towards each other. Although I feel very happy and secure with my family I still longed to know more about my birth family. About 10 years ago I obtained my non-identifying information and it took me another 3-4 years to finally feel ready to search. Because I knew very little about my birth family and wished to case no further grief to them I chose to use an adoption searcher who managed to confirm and locate my birth mothers side of the family in just a couple of days. This is where my story turns sad. I received my birth mother's name the day she passed away and found out about her passing the day of her funeral. I grew up in the same town where she lived and she even attended high school with my oldest sister. I have since met most of her family and have become acquainted with her mother. Although this has been tough I truly believe God knew what he was doing when things didn't work out for us to meet each other. Just so you all know my birth mother lived a very physically painful life and spent most of her life in and out of hospitals. It was do to her disabilities that she placed me. If you trust in the Lord to guide you, he will always make sure you get what you need even when it's not what you want.