The Adoption Entrustment Ceremony

Creating meaningful ritual in open adoption Rituals have always been used to signify a change or rite of passage, or to mark a transition in the life of a person or community. Although they are often interwoven with religious traditions, rituals can be anything that symbolizes and celebrates a life change. 

Supporting Birth Parent Connection

Our office received a recent email from a 24 year-old woman who was placed with her adoptive parents at birth and it made our day!

Randie Bencanann: Thoughts on Retirement

Time to say good-bye After 27 years at Adoption Connection, I’ve decided to step down/retire/move on/get-going … what is the right word?

Fostering the Adoption Connection with the Help of Mediation

In open adoption in California, birth parents and adopting parents have an opportunity to create a future contact agreement that will define the type of contact that the birth parents will have with their child and the adopting parents.

Are You the Nanny?—Coping with Invasive Questions and Ethnic Stereotypes

“Are you the nanny?” As a Latina adoptive mom of Caucasian children, I have lost track of the number of times I have been asked that question!

Lori Holden’s Open-Hearted Adoption Book

Adoption Connection is pleased to welcome author Lori Holden to the Bay Area. Her book, The Open-Hearted Way to Open Adoption: Helping Your Child Grow Up Whole, was written with the help of her daughter's birthmother, Crystal Hass. Lori answered a few questions about her book in our recent interview with her.
adoption process

What Does Learning to Sail Have To Do with the Adoption Process?

Most adoptive parents and birth parents experience trepidation when they first approach the adoption process. They both report a fear of being judged, of being vulnerable in front of strangers and of not knowing if they can trust the other party to follow through on promises.

Making Adoption Connections via Craigslist

Sara and her husband, Bradley, had recently completed their homestudy when they met up with friends for dinner to talk adoption. What came up were a recent blog about how a family found each other through Craigslist and a Huffington Post blog on the same subject.
infant adoption

Parenting in Your 40’s

Born in ‘63 & Parenting in '13 When I was 25, I thought by the time I was in my late forties, I would be focusing on the lives of my grown children, waiting to become a grandparent.

In Just a Few Words, Describing Birth Family

One of the most anxiety-provoking and mysterious aspects of open adoption is the coming together of birth parents and adopting parents. Neither party can imagine what the other side will look or be like.
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