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BLOG ENTRY #4: Domestic Adoption Orientation

When I went to the domestic adoption orientation one of the first things we did was break into smaller groups, I had no idea that the process of adoption was so involved. The birthmothers get to pick who their babies will be adopted by, the parents have the ability to state a preference of who their birthmother could be, and they the match is overseen the whole time by a case worker who helps the matching process along. It is even recommended that the adoptive parents create a booklet to offer the birthmothers so that they can visually express who they are as a couple. And it was a truly unique experience to be able to hear from a birthmother herself, to understand the struggle she was going through. There were two who volunteered from the dorms at Gladney for this month’s panel and they were taking questions from the audience. They were asked many questions and volunteered their answers willingly, but the overall theme of their answers was that they were so grateful to Gladney for helping their babies find a good and loving home. That even though it was probably the hardest decision of their lives, they were at peace with it because they knew deep down it felt right. For someone who was adopted as a child and never really got to know her birthmother, it was really nice to hear.
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