How to Find Open Adoption Families

One of the most common worries that prospective birth mothers have is finding a hopeful adoptive family. Fortunately, you are not alone, and many hopeful adoptive families are eager to give your child a loving home.

Adoption has changed quite a bit even in the past few decades. Where closed adoptions were once the norm, open adoptions have taken over. The vast majority of adoptions today are open, and they allow the birth parents to keep in touch with their child and their adoptive family. Research has also shown that open adoption benefits all involved parties, especially the adoptee.

If you’re looking for more information on open adoption families, then you’ve come to the right place. We’ve assembled this overview on the basics, and this article covers everything from open adoption family profiles to how adoption professionals select what hopeful adoptive parents to work with.

How Adoption Professionals Choose Adoptive Families

Because most adoptions today are open, most adoption professionals specialize in open adoption, as well. This is because of the many benefits of open adoption for birth parents and adoptive families alike. Experienced, reputable adoption professionals work closely with both parties to ensure that everyone is happy with their adoption process. Open adoption is a beautiful journey that forges a lifelong bond among everyone involved.

One of the most significant benefits of open adoption is that your child will know their adoption story. They are free to ask you any questions that they may have, and you can give them total transparency about things such as:

• Reasons for their placement
• Cultural heritage
• Extended family members
• And more

Most trusted adoption professionals abide by certain standards when it comes to working with open adoption families. This is because they want to make sure that these families commit to and are comfortable with open adoption, and adoption professionals do this in the best interests of you and your child. These requirements ensure that everyone is on the same page and that the process will be as smooth and stress-free as possible.

Here are a few ways that reputable adoption professionals ensure that hopeful adoptive families are on board with an open adoption:

• Open adoption families need to agree to direct communication with you. This communication can take many forms, including phone calls, texts and emails. Your adoption professional can mediate the first conversation you have with the adoptive parents to handle any questions or concerns that you may have.
• Open adoption families must agree to at least one in–person visit after the adoption. This is a great time for you to ask any questions or provide the adoptive family with important information. The adoptive parents will also be able to ask you any questions and provide you with crucial updates. These visits allow you and the adoptive family to meet face-to-face and get to know one another. Over time, you may consider each other extended family!
• Open adoption families will exchange identifying information with you. Because you and the adoptive family will know one another in open adoption, open adoption families should be excited to exchange contact information with you so you can all keep in touch via phone, email, and more.

You can browse waiting adoptive families here. All the families listed on the website are open adoption families who meet these criteria. Because adoption is such a life-changing experience, it is vital that you feel you can trust the adoptive parents and that there are no secrets between you. As a result, both you and the adoptive family will feel more fulfilled and less stressed throughout your respective adoption journeys.

You Choose the Right Adoptive Family

As a prospective birth mother, you will have full control of your adoption process from start to finish. You get to call all the shots with the guidance of your adoption professional. One of these decisions is choosing the right adoptive parents from a list of open adoption waiting families.

You will speak with your adoption professional about what kinds of traits you’re looking for in your child’s adoptive parents, and they will show you various open adoption family profiles that match these qualities. You can browse these profiles, and you’ll likely feel “right” once you’ve come across the perfect family for your child.

Jennifer said that her social worker sent her family profiles to look through, and she immediately knew that she had found the right adoptive parents. “I fell in love with Brad and Diane instantly,” she said. “They were kind, compassionate, non-judgmental and understanding. When I hung up the phone, I knew this was the family who were going to raise my baby.”

Many prospective birth parents feel this is one of the most reassuring steps of the adoption process. It lets them know that they’re placing their child with the family that they feel is right for their child. When you’re searching for the perfect set of adoptive parents for your child, you can ask yourself questions such as these:

• Do you picture your child growing up in an urban, suburban or rural environment? Do they live near the ocean or mountains?
• What kinds of values do you want the adoptive parents to have? Do you have any religious values that are important to you?
• Do you envision your child with family pets or siblings?

Once you have found the right parents after looking through open adoption family profiles, you can all get to know one another! You can all communicate through:

• Phone calls
• Emails
• Handwritten letters
• In-person visits
• Or whatever you feel comfortable with

Although you don’t have to get to know the adoptive parents if you don’t want to, it is highly encouraged. This is because you’ll be able to determine if they are a good fit for your baby. Also, they can ask you any questions that they may have.

If you decide to get to know the adoptive family before your delivery, then you can all discuss post-placement contact arrangements. Because you’re a prospective birth mother, how much contact you’d like to have with the open adoption families is completely up to you. Though you’ll always have full control over this, it’s encouraged that you meet them somewhere halfway so that both you and the adoptive parents are content with the arrangement.

To learn more about open adoption families, reach out to us today by filling out our online contact form. We would love to help you out in any way that we can!