This guest post is by Tanya, an adoptee and hopeful adoptive mother.

As an adoptee, I always thought that adoption didn’t define me, that I was just like everyone else.

But ever since my husband and I started our own journey as hopeful adoptive parents of a teenager or two, I have realized that my adoption has shaped my life in many ways.

I was adopted as an infant, and grew up in a family and community where adoption was commonplace.

My brother was adopted, other family members were adopted, some of my best friends were adopted, and people in my church were adopted.

Growing up, my favourite bedtime story was my adoption story—I knew that I was adopted before I even understood what “being adopted” meant.

Continue reading →

If there’s one thing scarier than dealing with an unplanned pregnancy and creating an adoption plan for your baby, it’s looking for adoptive parents to raise her.

Even though adoption practices have become more open and transparent over the past three decades, the decision to place a baby is still widely misunderstood and frowned upon by certain members of society.

What many people still don’t understand is that in open adoption today placing a child is an act of love, not rejection.

Birthmothers—women who relinquish their babies for adoption because they’re not ready or able to become parents— freely and voluntarily choose their child’s parents and can have a lifelong relationship with them,

They don’t just “put them up” or “give them up” without a second thought. Continue reading →

Waiting to be picked by an expectant mother with an adoption plan can do funny things to your head. Suddenly, your whole world revolves around getting “the Call” and finding a match.

And the longer you wait, the harder it gets.

It’s easy to beat yourself up while you’re in a holding pattern. But that won’t help you get chosen any faster. If anything, it will only make things worse.

Here are seven things you need to stop telling yourself while you wait for an expectant mother to pick you. Continue reading →