When you formed your family through adoption, everyone seems to think it’s their right to ask you nosy questions about adoption. Readers share some of the most common—as well as some of the most outrageous.
Parents Share: “When I Knew I Was Going to Adopt”
Parents share the moment they knew in their hearts that their path to parenthood would involve adoption, whether they always knew or it came after years of trying to conceive.
Parents Share: The “Match Meeting” with an Expectant Mother
“Be yourself” and more real-life advice for the “match meeting” with an expectant mother.
Parents Share: How Is Parenting After Adoption Different?
We asked parents to “name one way in which adoptive parenting differs from parenting a biological child.” From maintaining an open adoption to understanding trauma parenting to feeling free to agree wholeheartedly with compliments about your child’s looks, here’s what readers shared.
Parents Share: Our Last-Minute “Stork Drop” Adoption
We asked, did you get “the call” that you’d been selected by a birth mother after the baby was already born? Parents respond with their experiences and been-there advice.
Parents Share: Birth Sibling Connections
We asked “Does your child have a birth sibling who lives with another adoptive family?” Parents respond and explain how they keep in touch (or why contact isn’t possible).
Parents Share: Deciding What Age Child to Adopt
From newborns to teens to sibling groups, adoptive parents share the thought process behind their age preferences when adopting.
Parents Share: What My Child’s Friends Want to Know About Adoption
Parents share the questions their children have been asked by friends and classmates over the years, from being in an orphanage to whether they know their “real” parents.
Parents Share: “Our Open Adoption Over the Years”
Adoptive moms and dads share how their open adoptions have changed over time — whether they became more or less open, and why.
Parents Share: “My Best Bonding Advice”
Adoptive moms and dads share their best advice for bonding with a newly adopted child, from taking time off to never leaving a child to cry it out at night.
Parents Share: My “Adoption Hero”
Adoptive parents pay tribute to their “adoption heroes,” including a social worker, their child’s birth mother, or their child.
Parents Share: Celebrating with an Adoption Shower
Adoptive parents who welcomed their child home with an adoption shower share when they celebrated and their favorite part of the joyous occasion.
“I Can’t Believe She Just Said That!” – Biggest Adoption Misconceptions
Parents share the biggest false beliefs about adoption that they’ve encountered, from ‘love heals all’ to ‘your child is lucky’ to ‘now you’ll get pregnant!’
Parent-to-Parent: “Your Child Looks Just Like You!”
We asked our readers how they respond when someone comments that their child “looks just like” them. Read the answers.
Parent-to-Parent: The First Time You Saw Your Child
We asked our readers: Tell us about the first time you saw your child. Was in the hospital or in a referral photo?
Parent-to-Parent: How to Get Through a Failed Match or Placement?
We asked our readers what advice they would give to a hopeful adoptive parent who just had an adoption situation fall through. Read the answers.
How Do You Respond to “How Long Did It Take You to Adopt?”
We asked our readers: How do you respond when someone asks you how long it takes to adopt? Read the answers from adoptive parents.
Parent-to-Parent: Holiday Gifts for Your Child’s Birth Family
We asked our readers: If you’ll be giving your child’s birth parents a gift this holiday season, what is it and how will you give it to them? Read the answers from adoptive parents.
“Mom, Were You Alive During Woodstock?”
Age limits for those adopting have been stretched or even eliminated. How might this affect the children of these “older” parents?
Share Your Story: Announcing Your Adoption
We asked our Reader Panel: Outside of your immediate family, who was the first person you told about your decision to adopt, and how did you tell them?