Open Adoption: How Open is Open?

What is an open adoption and how can adoptive parents navigate forming a relationship with their child’s first family. Micky Duxbury, adoptive mother and author of Making Room in Our Hearts: Keeping Family Ties Through Open Adoption, and Patricia Dischler, a birth mom and author of Because I Loved You: A Birthmother’s View of Open Adoption, talk about creating healthy open adoption.

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Hit the Highlights

What does the birth mother feel during an initial meeting with the adoptive parents?
What to do when the birth mother/birth family is not a good influence on the child?
What to do when the birth mother wants to meet with the child and the adoptive parents aren’t ready?
How do open adoptions work in international adoptions?
What to do when the birth mother asks for money?
How to establish boundaries between adoptive families and birth families?
What to do when the birth mother disrupts the bond with the adoptive parents?
When is the best time to have an open relationship?
How does openness work with birth siblings?
How can parents deal with different degrees of openness within an adoptive family?
Where can people get help to navigate the birth family/adoptive family relationship?