Adoption Professionals Blogs

January 13, 2010, 5:12 am

I had another post planned, but today's Grown In My Heart post, Who Could Possibly Want HIV+ Children? got me thinking. Before I even read the post, I sort of answered the question. HIV is on the list of conditions we would consider when adopting a child. So, my answer was, maybe me. Oddly...

January 15, 2010, 5:00 am

I read a lot of adoption blogs, and on a birthmother's blog, I found a link to the following item from Yahoo! Answers : My question is, if at some point down the road, we no longer want to keep the adoption semi-open and want to make it a closed adoption, can we do that or can the birth parents...

January 21, 2010, 5:01 am

I don't understand infertility. I mean, I understand it from a medical perspective, I just don't understand why some people will go to extreme measures to have a biological child. In general, I don't write about this topic, because I'm sure to come off as insensitive. And I probably am. I've...

January 26, 2010, 5:24 am

I'm facing a situation right now that has many possible outcomes. It's causing me to think in all sorts of directions. I was thinking about it last night (in the shower, because that's the only place I am allowed to think), and my brain went something like this: I wish I had a crystal ball. No,...

January 29, 2010, 6:46 am

The topic for Grown in My Heart's Adoption Carnival V : Adoption Reform means so many things because we all come from different parts of the adoption community. To you reform may mean making original birth certificates available to every adoptee, to me it may mean making all countries Hague ...

February 5, 2010, 6:00 am

I recently read the Newsweek article, "Coerced Reproduction ", and it threw me for a loop. First, I had never thought of abusive relationships in this light. Second, a similar situation may be playing out for a friend of mine and her child's birth mother. The article discusses women in abusive...

February 12, 2010, 5:00 am

When should we start a baby registry? This is a question I see a lot . There's no surefire answer, so I'll just go with my opinion. Please feel free to share yours. In September 2005, we had just gone active with our facilitator. One day, we got a call about a mother who was due a week from that...

February 19, 2010, 5:00 am

It's a common question - What is the effect of drugs/alcohol/smoking on a developing fetus? And the answer varies widely based on the substance. Alcohol, for example, seems to do the most harm in the first 8 weeks of pregnancy. Some drugs simply haven't been around long enough for us to know what...

February 22, 2010, 6:00 am

It all started with the garage sale. After my mom passed away, my dad started bringing mountains of stuff to our house. Our garage was so full, we couldn't walk into it. So, we had a garage sale. A friend of ours, the mother of two girls, asked if she could bring some stuff and try to sell it. Of...

March 12, 2010, 6:05 am

I love Adoptive Families magazine! I read every issue cover to cover. I even read the ads. Last year, they announced they would be publishing You Can Adopt: An Adoptive Families Guide, by Susan Caughman and Isolde Motley. I immediately wanted to buy the book, and I did so as soon as it became...