Resources for Communicating with Your Birthparents

Communicating with birthparents can be a sensitive subject for some, but in open adoptions it is common and often beneficial for an adoptee to get to know their birth family. Check out some of the blogs and resources below to help you find a method of communication that you and your birthparents can be comfortable with.

Prospective adoptive parents will often turn to the many forms of web media that exist today to maintain communication with birthparents. Facebook, Instagram and Twitter can all be great resources for families to keep in touch. Sometimes adoptive families will have a page designated to an adoptee's progress throughout each stage of development. This becomes more of a blog journal for parents on both sides of an adoption to see important events together. Just having exposure to information like this can be very empowering and reassuring that their adoption choice was, in fact, the best one.

OpenAdopt.org's blog ( http://bit.ly/2soab88) is relatively new, but even with the few blogs that have been posted so far, several have been from the point of view of adoptees, and there is plenty of helpful information to take in on the subject of communicating with birthparents. This particular site is focused on open adoptions, with an emphasis on open communication between the birth and adoptive families to benefit adoptees. With some inspiring success stories and suggestions on how to handle different situations, this growing blog is one to keep an eye on.

Reddit, as one might expect, is a gold mine of information and contacts when it comes to figuring out how to communicate with your birth family in an open adoption. There are many boards (called subreddits) on Reddit related to adoption, but the ones most likely to be able to help answer any communication issues include /r/Adoption ( https://www.reddit.com/r/Adoption/), /r/Adopted ( https://www.reddit.com/r/Adopted/), and /r/Adoptees ( https://www.reddit.com/r/Adoptees/). While all of these subreddits are active, Adoption is without a doubt the most active with over 7,000 subscribers. Each subreddit allows you to search past topics for questions or issues similar to yours, or you can post your own topic after a very minimal signup.