Explaining Open Adoption

Many people have heard of what adoption is, but not all have experience in it. The minute I was born I was removed from the arms of my birth mother and given to  a new family. I was one of the first open adoptions to occur in the Chicago land area. It is where you no longer live with the family that gave birth to you, but you know who they are and you  can choose to keep in contact with them. The process is long and hard, and it is extremely difficult to adopt within the US. Most families looking to adopt most outsource to a different country. In this case, my countries will only give away babies with disabilities. My family was fortunate enough to find a young mother through their primary physician. She was 18 and unable to support the child she already had. My current parents aided her through rent and medical bills. Throughout the process she could have said no and chose to keep me and my parents would have lost all the time and money the invested to have a child of their own. She nearly changed her mind on the day of my birth, but she made the right decision and gave me to a loving family who had all of the means to take care of me. For the first 4 or 5 years of my life we stayed in contact with her and got to she her grow as I did, We saw her get married and have another child, but the idea of not having me to her own was holding her back. We lost contact with her and we all moved on with our lives. One thing I have that not many adopted children have is the piece of mind to know who she is and once was. Once the open adoption act was first past right before this process my parents went through, my parent already had tickets to go to Romania. This new law was such a big deal that between 1997-8 Hilary Clinton payed a visit to Chicago to see my mom, and she how this new plan was in progress. One last and very important thing to know about children who are adopted, just because someone gave birth to you does not mean their your mom and dad, those who raise you truly earn that title.