Adoption Perspectives Archives

National Adoption Awareness Month

BPetersonDesign2023-07-19T16:15:08-07:00November 1, 2021|Adoption Advisor, Adoption Education, Adoption is Hard, Adoption Perspectives, Adoption Process, Domestic infant adoption, Hoping to Adopt|

During the month of November we raise awareness of adoption during National Adoption Awareness Month. While every type of adoption is recognized this month, the particular focus this month is to raise awareness about the urgent need for adoptive families for children and youth in foster care. The number of children and teens needing homes is evident by looking at AdoptUSKids or heart galleries typically showing available children by state. The history of National Adoption Awareness Month dates back to 1976 when the Governor of Massachusetts announced the first Adoption Week. This idea grew in popularity and quickly spread nation wide. In 1995, President Clinton expanded the week to the entire month of November. I have given other ideas on how to recognize National Adoption Day in years past. This year, to recognize National Adoption Awareness Month, we’re going to post each day about some topic in adoption, but focusing on education and helping families better understand the adoption process and what things you might experience if you adopt. To learn more about us and how we plan to cover National Adoption Awareness Month, click here.

A Different Life, Not a Better Life

BPetersonDesign2022-10-18T16:51:00-07:00October 19, 2021|Adoption Advisor, Adoption Education, Adoption is Hard, Adoption Perspectives, Domestic infant adoption, Hoping to Adopt, Open Adoption (Learn)|

I can’t help but focus on this key phrase now that I know more, now that I’ve spent five years listening to adoptees’ voices, particularly those adoptees that experience serious discontent with their adoptions. The phrase that hits me hard as the truth now: Different isn’t better. An adoptive parent may be able to offer a more financially stable home, more opportunities for education, extracurricular activities and travel. But, the trade off to that is that there was still maternal separation and that child will likely experience trauma and loss due to their adoption, in a transracial adoption, there might also be loss associated with separation from their culture. So that child’s life will definitely be different, the adoptee will face different hardships after an adoption than they would have had in their biological home, but there will be hardships nonetheless. Click here to read more on Katie’s reflections.

Our New Adoption Advisor Shares Her Personal Adoption Story

BPetersonDesign2022-04-11T07:13:50-07:00September 24, 2021|Adoption Advisor, Adoption Education, Adoption Perspectives, Adoption Process, Open Adoption (Learn)|

Purl’s newest Adoption Advisor, Tessa Reagan Vilte, shares her own personal adoption journey in today’s blog. She shares what it was like adopting with the support of a different adoption consultant. She also shares why she decided to join Purl. To learn more about Tessa’s story, and the different experience working with a different adoption consultant, click here.

It’s not about you…and you will likely be uncomfortable

BPetersonDesign2022-03-31T10:02:00-07:00June 10, 2021|Adoption Disruption, Adoption Education, Adoption is Hard, Adoption Perspectives, Adoption Process, Domestic infant adoption, Hoping to Adopt, Infertility, Transracial Adoption (Learn)|

If you’re starting the adoption journey you might not realize that the rest of this journey WILL NOT be about you. You might have endured a lot of pain to get here, infertility, failed IUI or IVF cycles, failed embryo adoption or surrogacy. Really, really tough stuff. But I’m going to tell you something difficult to hear, most likely if you are here now and pursuing domestic infant adoption: your mindset will now have to immediately shift and all your decisions from here need to be about your future child through adoption (the adoptee) and what is best for them. You need to be able to justify every decision you make, and feel comfortable telling your future child the decisions you made and steps you took to adopt. To read more, click here.

“Zimmerman Day”, our Finalization Day

BPetersonDesign2022-03-30T18:30:48-07:00April 8, 2021|Adoption Advisor, Adoption Education, Adoption is Hard, Adoption Perspectives, Domestic infant adoption, Hoping to Adopt, Open Adoption (Learn)|

Cora’s adoption was finalized on April 7, 2016, a day we coin “Zimmerman Day” in our home. Unlike some other adoptive families, we grew our family through adoption first, and then through a surprise pregnancy that led to our daughter Raelyn 8 months later. So when it came time to decide if/how we were going to celebrate Cora’s adoption finalization day, I struggled to find a way to celebrate what was an important day in our family, at the same time not leaving out our younger daughter, who didn’t have a corresponding day. We came up with “Zimmerman Day”, the day that our whole family shares the same last name. It isn’t a big holiday around our house, there are no gifts, no special hats or tiaras, but there is one messy homemade cake with a big Z on it, and as many sprinkles as will stick to it (which for the record is A LOT). Both of my girls get so excited to help make the cake and help decorate it, and the grandparents usually come over for dinner and cake. I don’t know how Cora is going to feel about this day when she’s older and has had time to understand the significance of it, but for now she loves another day between everyone’s birthdays to celebrate our family. Click here to learn more, and to learn what I think of the term “forever family” day…

An Adoptive Mom’s Hope for an Open Adoption

BPetersonDesign2022-03-30T18:34:30-07:00March 25, 2021|Adoption Education, Adoption is Hard, Adoption Perspectives, Domestic infant adoption, Open Adoption (Learn)|

An adoptive mom and guest blogger anonymously shares her hopes for an open adoption.

It has been two years since I’ve seen my daughter’s birth mother. Two years since I’ve heard from her. We had as open of an adoption as you can imagine. We shared with one another. She was gracious in including me every step of the way. I made her OB appointments, I drove her to them, she allowed me next to her for every exam, every decision that was made. We talked about our pasts, our dreams, our futures, our fears. I had the privilege of coaching her through childbirth and welcoming our daughter into the world together. But then things changed, click here to read more.

Selfish?

BPetersonDesign2022-04-01T07:26:24-07:00March 1, 2021|Adoption Advisor, Adoption Disruption, Adoption Education, Adoption is Hard, Adoption Perspectives, Domestic infant adoption, Hoping to Adopt, Infertility, Open Adoption (Learn)|

This blog post discusses the term “selfish” and how that is often used in the context of domestic infant adoption. It discusses an episode of the teen drama All American and an adoption story in one of the show’s characters and my reaction after watching a scene involving a potential adoption disruption, or a closed adoption that turns open after the birth mother changes her mind. Click here to read more.

Who Am I Really?

BPetersonDesign2022-04-01T07:27:27-07:00February 25, 2021|Adoption Education, Adoption is Hard, Adoption Perspectives, Domestic infant adoption, Hoping to Adopt, Open Adoption (Learn)|

Guest blogger, Damon L. Davis, is an adoptee, an adoptive parent, and the host of the "Who Am I Really?" podcast, where he shares the reunion stories of other adoptees. You can find the show anywhere you listen to podcasts, online at www.whoamireallypodcast.com, and follow the show on social media @WAIReally. Damon's book "Who Am I Really? An Adoptee Memoir" recounts his amazing reunion with his biological mother, the accidental DNA discovery of his birth father, and all of his inner thoughts and emotions along the way.

5 Things You Shouldn’t Say to a Mom (or Dad) Through Adoption

BPetersonDesign2022-04-01T07:32:24-07:00February 10, 2021|Adoption Education, Adoption is Hard, Adoption Perspectives, Adoption Process, Domestic infant adoption, Hoping to Adopt, Infertility|

Okay, if you’re reading this, it means you might have seen my first Reel! Hopefully I’ll get better at this! So, some of these questions and comments are totally personal, some feel harmless or are meant as a complement, but all are not recommended for the following reasons…

Post-Adoption Comprehensive Care

BPetersonDesign2022-04-05T13:58:34-07:00December 17, 2020|Adoption Advisor, Adoption Education, Adoption is Hard, Adoption Perspectives, Adoption Process, Domestic infant adoption, Drug/Alcohol Exposure, Hoping to Adopt|

This guest blog post includes Five Recommendations for Parents to Seek Out For Their Child with a History of Adoption or Foster Care. It was written by Kimara Gustafson MD, MPH, Erin Bocock, Judith Eckerle MD with Adoption Medicine Clinic. This blog post will discuss different assessments and care that is available for a child who was adopted and/or a child who may have a background of abuse/neglect, stress, early adversity and prenatal exposures. To read more about these resources for families who have adopted a child, click here.

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