Learn more about the adoption process.
National Adoption Awareness Month
November is National Awareness Month. During the month of November we celebrate and raise awareness of adoption. While every type of adoption is recognized, the particular focus of this month is to raise awareness about the urgent need for adoptive families for children and youth in foster care.
Since we don't typically operate in the foster care space, during November we will be offering a blog series looking at the domestic adoption process from start to finish, identifying resources, perspectives and ideas to educate and prepare families for adoption. We will be sharing both the positive and negative aspects of adoption, different from many professionals and adoptive parents who focus only on the positive narratives. Adoption begins from loss and there is trauma for every child, but there are usually beautiful parts to it as well. Our goal is to help adoptive parents recognize the complicated nature of adoption and be more prepared for it, so they can be the best parents they an be to their child.Fall and My Thoughts on Disrupted Adoptions Today
Fall always used to be my (Katie, CEO/Founder of Purl's) favorite month. The weather changing, football, pumpkins, the start of the holiday season. But fall started to have a different feel for me 7 years ago as my husband and I began our personal adoption journey. We had been matched almost immediately after completing our home study with an expectant mom due with a baby boy in October. Even as a very unprepared adoptive parent ,I did know there was a possibility he wouldn’t end up being ours. But I was pretty clueless and even had a feeling of entitlement over that baby because we had been chosen, we had spent a lot of time with the expectant mom and had been paying living expenses for the expectant mom during the course of that pregnancy, and maybe even not so subconsciously I believed we would give this child a better life than this expectant mom could provide. Click here to read more about my thoughts on disrupted adoptions now.
Embrace the Curiosity of Your Child Through Adoption
Our writer today is Emily, Purl's Administrative Assistant and a transracial adoptee. In this blog she shares her fears relating to sharing her thoughts and curiosity surrounding her adoption with her adoptive parents. This blog post will help adoptive parents better understand the adoptee's perspective when they are curious about their birth family and the adoption generally and help adoptive parents be better prepared to talk to their child about adoption. Click here to read more.
Our Thoughts on Adoption Facilitators
“Facilitator” is a controversial word in the adoption community. Frankly, here at Purl, we always work very hard to ensure people understand we are NOT A FACILITATOR, and what we do instead (more on that later). But facilitators are so ...
To Fundraise or Not to Fundraise … That is the Question
Today’s blog post is written by Adoption Advisor, Kelcie Grace. She discusses the pros and cons of fundraising for your adoption process. -- Not everyone has tens of thousands of dollars sitting in a savings account, ready when they decide ...
And just like that… we become 5 – My Adoption Journey
Today's blog post is written by Purl's newest adoption advisor, Aubrey, who is a former Purl client and a mom to three children through transracial adoption. Click here to read more! “What have we done?!” That was the first question my husband and I asked each other after we hung up the phone, we had just been told we were matched with TWINS 3 years after adopting our daughter; where I admit we still often ask that to one another, we now know that ‘what we have done’ is fill our home with love. I’m Aubrey Cortez, the newest adoption advisor at Purl Adoption Advisory, and that was the beginning of a happy ending I never imagined would be my own. Click here to read more.
Trying to be the “Perfect” Adoptive Parent
Today's blog post is written by Purl Advisor, Kelcie Grace, and will discuss navigating the new world of parenting as a mother via adoption. Click here to read more!
The Basics of Embryo Adoption and Embryo Donation
The domestic infant adoption world is crowded and families are taking longer to match and adopt. There really is no need for more prospective adoptive parents, and we have heard statistics there are likely 50-75 waiting prospective adoptive families for every baby being placed for adoption at birth. Because of that reality, many couples and individuals have turned to embryo donation/embryo adoption, another assisted reproduction method to grow a family, but potentially at a lower cost and with different considerations than domestic infant adoption. While we are not assisted reproduction attorneys, we wanted to give you some basic information on embryo donation/adoption to consider before beginning a domestic infant adoption journey or an embryo donation/adoption journey. To learn more about this potential way to grow your family, click here.
My Experience with Respite Foster Care
My name is Tessa and I am an Adoption Advisor here at Purl. I am an adoptive parent and respite/emergency placement foster parent. I wanted to take some time to share about my experience with foster care. There are several ...
Birthdays to an Adoptee
Today’s blog post is written by Purl’s Administrative Assistant, and transracial adoptee, Emily. She shares with us her feelings toward her birthday, and how this feeling has changed with every passing year. For adoptees, birthdays can be strange. It’s an ...
The Importance of Teaching Diversity at a Young Age
Emily, Purl's Administrative Assistant is a transracial adoptee as well as studying to become certified in teaching. She is learning about the importance of teaching diversity to children at a young age. Today, she shares some of her favorite books ...
Adoption Language from an Adoptee’s Perspective
Our writer today is Emily, Purl's Administrative Assistant and a transracial adoptee. She shares her perspective as an adoptee to help adoptive parents and prospective adoptive parents understand arguably the most important voice in the adoption triad. -- As a ...
We All Make Mistakes…
Parenting is hard. I make mistakes as a parent ALL THE TIME! I'm learning to tell my kids when I make mistakes, so that they can learn from my mistakes as well. I made a lot of mistakes as a ...
The Reality of Regret in Adoption
The guest speaker of today’s blog is a birth mom who wishes to stay anonymous. She shares with us a little bit about her daughter’s adoption and what it was like dealing the emotions that came with it. ——— According ...
Understanding the Indian Child Welfare Act (“ICWA”)
This is NOT legal advice, you should contact an adoption attorney skilled in ICWA cases if you think that it may apply to your adoption. The Indian Child Welfare Act (“ICWA”, or the “Act”) is a federal law that was enacted in ...
Our New Adoption Advisor Shares Her Family’s Adoption Story
Purl’s new Adoption Advisor, Kelcie Grace, shares her family’s domestic infant adoption story - the joy, the heartache, and everything in between. She shares her experience working with and adoption advisor like Purl and why she decided to join the Purl team after completing her adoption. Click here to read Kelcie Grace’s story.
Your Adoption Profile – How to Tell Your Family’s Story
In today’s blog, Purl’s Director of Graphic Design, Ali Alvidrez, shares her tips on telling your family’s story through your family profile. “Here is the thing, YOU are the family that SOMEONE is hoping to find for their child. Our job is to show all the unique things about you that will help the expectant family to connect with you….” Click here to read more.
Where Do I Go From Here? An Adoptee’s Thoughts on Search and Reunion
When looking through the section about adoption at any bookstore, you will find that most of the books are geared towards the adoptive parent audience. You may even find a few written for birth parents. We believe the best way to learn about adoption is from adoption perspectives, specifically the perspective of the adoptee, the part of the triad that doesn’t typically get to enter into adoption voluntarily. Today, we are sharing the perspective of an adoptee and Purl’s Administrative Assistant, Emily, who wanted to share more about her adoption experience. Keep in mind that all adoptions are different, there are both positive and negative stories of adoption from adoptees. Today she shares her perspective about the search for her biological family.