Closed. Open. Semi-open. In limbo. In reunion. No matter the status of your adoption, if you're a birth parent, you need to watch these two videos.

Entitled "Dear Mom," these two videos feature interviews with adoptees regarding their relinquishment, their knowledge of their adoption, opinions on the matter and issues surrounding search and reunion. Each adoptee (mostly female, one male) had a different experience. Each adoptee had a different point of view starting the process. Each adoptee had a different life story growing up.

Why is it so important for birth parents to watch these videos?

These are "our" children. Okay, so I didn't give birth to any of these well-spoken individuals. However, they speak to what I do not understand as I am not an adoptee myself. Their experience is one that I cannot live myself and therefore I can learn so much from their experiences, their emotions and their willingness to share this kind of information with the internet.

One adoptee was denied any form of contact, including health information. While she shrugs repeatedly throughout her interview segments, saying that it didn't matter to her, it tugged at my heartstrings in many ways. Each of these individuals teaches us something important about adoption as a birth parent. One birth mother didn't tell her husband about the placement and the information almost caused a divorce. (And so, what do we learn? Honesty is the best policy.) We learn how important that health information can be to our children when we find that one birth mother had breast cancer in her late thirties. We learn how knowing something as simple as eye color can be to an adoptee who has a child with a random pair of eyes.

We can learn so much.

I don't suggest watching either of these videos without a tissue nearby. Of course, I'm watching these on the day after my own daughter's birthday while in the midst of postpartum hormone fluctuations so I might be a little sensitive to such things... but I think the general response would be somewhat emotional, no matter the current mood of the birth parent.

And so, watch both videos. And leave the creator some comments. It's so great to see things like this appearing on the internet. What a valuable resource for birth parents (so they can relate to their relinquished children), adoptive parents (so they can understand the thought processes an adoptee might go through) and adoptees (so they can see that maybe they're not alone). We're living in an age that brings learning into our homes, right to our fingertips.

Take advantage of the resources available to you.

Thank you to Ungrateful Little Bastard for the initial heads up.

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For more, read Reunion: Relationship with Your Child.

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Photo Credit.