Sometimes just having someone to talk to that knows exactly how you are feeling, is just what you need. One of Act of Love’s sweet birthmothers found two other birthmothers who had placed through our agency, on Facebook, and she contacted them privately. The birthmothers who had placed children for adoption in the past welcomed her questions and thoughts, with love and understanding.

The current birthparent could not believe how kind these past birthmothers were to her. They did not know each other, but had a common bond in adoption. Some parts of their circumstances were similar, other parts were very different, but the correspondence back and forth was very comforting to the birthparent going through the process currently.

We value and appreciate those who are willing to share their experiences with others. We can learn a lot from others who have gone before us and will talk openly and honestly. Their insight can be invaluable to someone contemplating placing a child for adoption.

We have several birthparents that have been willing to talk with others who have questions. These women want to help others; they feel passionate about the adoption process and believe that talking helps. They also want to share things that worked well for them. One says, “I’m more than happy to talk to potential birthmothers. I love my open adoption, my adoptive family, and the agency I worked with.”

Over the years many birthmothers have called the agency, letting the staff know how they are doing and what is going on in their lives. It’s always so exciting for our staff to hear of the new jobs, new relationships, and how their other children are doing. We love hearing from our birthparents and feel grateful when they reach out to contact us, sometimes years after placement.

We also hear from many birthparents as we continue to send them their pictures and letters from their adoptive families. It’s always great to hear the updates and feel their excitement to receive the newest information on their child. For the past twenty years the main form of correspondence was pictures and letters through the agency. As we look forward to the next twenty years, we see changes in adoptive parents and birthparents’ desires to communicate through emails, blogs, texts and other forms of electronic contact. Just as open adoptions have evolved, so will the ways in which that openness happens.

We love our birthparents and adoptive parents and hope we continue to hear from them. In addition we hope our past birthparents will remain receptive to answering questions from current birthparents. We are all in adoption together and helping one another makes the experience even better!