I will be e-mailing surveys to those who have requested to participate in the survey either tonight or tomorrow. Don't know what I'm talking about? Intrigued? Good!

As mentioned briefly in this post, I will be doing a series on birth parents who go on to parent other children, including those who placed a child while already parenting another. (Note: these two different subsects will have slightly differing questions.)

By... more

Some few birth parents in open adoptions have the opportunity for all their children to have some contact with each other. First Mom and blogger Jenna has many photos of her two children interacting together. Birth mom blogger Coley also has an open adoption and a similar situation.

The rest of the birth parents in the world face the fact that their children may never meet, much less be photographed together and know each other. It is not yet the norm for siblings separated by adoption to know each other.

Some efforts are... more

I get sappy and introspective during the month of December. If my Husband can deal, so can you. I present to you the following quote:

"Making the decision to have a child is momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body." -Elizabeth Stone

Any parent can atest to the truth behind that quote. For example, right now, Nick is walking. They're those unsure steps that come right after the first few steps. Honestly, he'd still rather crawl. He can get there... more

A year ago today, Nicholas still wasn't quite born. I was deep in the throes of late labor. Nicholas was born at 6:39 in the evening after fourteen hours and thirty-nine minutes of back labor. A year ago today, D was standing by the phone and updating my personal blog with labor progression. She was the first one who wasn't at the hospital to have access to pictures.

What strikes me most about this birthday, other than the fact that I am emotionally crushed that my Son is already a whole year old, is that Nicholas and the Munchkin... more

Recently on the forums, the discussion of family trees and school projects was a hot topic. I offered up some different variations of the family tree that I had come across in my jaunts through adoption themed information on the web. There are some who are of the opinion that schools need to drop the project of family trees all together or, at the very least, drop the traditional tree motif due to the ever... more

Planning to have a family after the placement of a child is often a sticky, tricky and emotionally laden subject. In fact, while reading the book The Girls Who Went Away by Ann Fessler, I learned that there are a lot of firstmothers who never had another child due to the emotional complexity of the adoption of their first child. Neither road is easy: choosing to have or not to have a child is always a huge decision in one's life no matter your previous involvement in the... more

I've started working on the information gathered from birth parents in the survey I'm conducting regarding birth parents who go on to (or continue to) parent children after placement. I e-mailed a large group of birth parents who said that they were interested in participating but due to time constraints, emergencies and so on, I do not have the number of responses that I would like to in order to fairly represent all different views, situations and adoption types. So, I'm making one last call for participation!

I've posted... more