We asked our readers: How did you decide whether to introduce the topic of adoption at your child’s school? What actions did you take, if any, to start explaining adoption to classmates or teachers? What advice do you have for other parents about how to best interact with your child’s teachers?
“Take It from Us!”: Open Adoption
Real-life advice from the Adoptive Families community on understanding openness, navigating visits and contact, explaining birth siblings, and more.
Parent-to-Parent: Like Birth Mother, Like Child
We asked our readers: What talent or trait do you see in your child that must be from his or her birth family? Read the answers from adoptive parents.
Raising a Racially Ambiguous Child
We asked our reader panel: Have you ever been asked to explain your child’s ethnic identity? How do you respond?
Parent-to-Parent: “Do You Talk with the Teacher About Adoption?”
Do you tell the teacher that your child was adopted at the start of a new school year? See parents’ answers.
Parent-to-Parent: My Best Domestic Adoption Travel Advice
If you traveled domestically to adopt, what’s one piece of advice you can give others as they prepare to do the same? See parents’ answers.
Parent-to-Parent: Explaining Attention and Questions from Strangers
When you and your child don’t look alike, the world wants to know why. Parents who adopted transracially share how they explain strangers’ questions and comments to their children.
Dolls and Toys for Our Families
We asked readers, “Have you found any dolls or other toys that reflect your child’s race and/or birth culture that you would specifically recommend?” Here are the top picks.
Parent-to-Parent: My Best Advice to Myself
Adoptive parents share the best adoption advice they would give themselves if they could go back five years, whether that would take them back to the adoption process or the early days of parenting.
“Should We Tell Our Son’s Teacher That He Was Adopted?”
Families share their experiences with school and adoption issues.
Share Your Story: Transracial Parenting
We asked readers what tips, resources, experiences they had to say about transracial parenting. Here, we share their responses.
Parent-to-Parent: Post-Adoption Contact Agreements
Parents in open adoptions share whether they have a post-adoption contact agreement with their child’s birth parents and, if so, what it includes.
Share Your Story: Was It Fate?
We asked our readers: Do you believe your child was destined for your family? Or does fate have nothing to do with it? Here are your stories.
Keeping Your Spirits Up During the Wait
From doing “lasts” as a couple to cleaning out closets and drawers to writing in a journal to their child-to-be, parents share how they remained positive during a long or uncertain wait to adopt.
Friendships with Fellow Adoptees
Adoptive parents share whether their children have friends who are also adoptees and, if so, how the children met.
Share Your Story: Favorite Pre-adoption Books
We asked our reader panel to describe the books they find most helpful to prospective adoptive parents. Here are some of their favorites.
How Did Your First Child React to the Arrival of a Second?
How did you work through sibling issues/rivalries at the time of the adoption and in subsequent years? How about instances in which one child receives more attention than another or silly questions? (Is that your “real” sister?) Our readers respond.
Parent-to-Parent: My Favorite Adoption Memory
Adoptive parents and adoptees share their favorite adoption memories from the past year, including first Mother’s Days, finalizing adoptions, and gaining access to open records.
Share Your Story: Pre-Adoption Education
Some international adoption regulations require pre-adoption education for prospective adopters. Do you think this is a good idea? What kind of preparation did you have? Would you do anything differently?
Share Your Story: Choosing a Route
We asked our reader panel: “How, and why, did you choose between the different types of adoption?” This is what they shared.