5 New Year’s Resolutions as a Birth Mother in a Colorado Adoption
New Year’s is around the corner. At Adoption Choices of Colorado, we want to wish all the birth mothers a Happy New Year. We know it is a hectic time for you. You may be wondering how to turn over a new leaf in 2022. If you have trouble with what New Year’s Resolutions in a Colorado adoption you want to make for the upcoming new year that will benefit you as a birth mother, here are five New Year’s resolutions for Colorado birth mothers that we recommend you try.
If you need adoption help now, please call or text us at 303-670-4673 (HOPE) or visit us at Adoption Choices of Colorado.
- Reach Out to Family and Friends
Whether it is during or after your pregnancy, having a support system is important. You may be feeling that you have to carry the burden by yourself. You may have distanced yourself from any help due to guilt, shame, or grief of having to give up their baby for adoption. However, in this resolution, you can decide to have people that love and care for you no matter what. You choose who your family is. Whoever supports you through the decision-making and is also their post-pregnancy, have them close to you and spend time with them. Reconnect those relationships and have them in your journey during the Denver adoption process. - Use Colorado Adoption Service: Free Counseling
Counseling is free at Adoption Choices of Colorado. We want you to be able to receive the utmost care for your physical, emotional, and mental health. Having someone to discuss your feelings during this adoption process is important. Your insecurities, worries, and traumas need to be validated, accepted, and processed by you through a professional who will understand, sympathize, and empathize with you. Additionally, group counseling is available if you are comfortable sharing our story with a group that has shared this similar experience. Whichever form of counseling works best for you. We encourage you to continue or pursue this option for yourself in the coming New Year. - Spend Time with Your Child After Colorado Adoption
You may have decided to do an open or semi-open adoption with your child once the baby is born. When you relinquish your rights to the adoptive family, some grief may be swirling in your mind and heart. However, you can use the adoption you chose as an opportunity to schedule communications with your child. At first, you may be shy or reserved about the idea because of unresolved feelings of going through the Colorado adoption process. However, you know that the family you chose understands your situation, and you know they are going to take care of your child and let you see them. So, as another New Year’s resolution, take that leap of faith and initiate contact. Go see your child and create that special bond that you crave for the foreseeable future. One step of courage is all it takes to create a continuous tradition and communication. - Keep a Personal BM Journal
You may be worried about the entire adoption journey and don’t have the energy to talk to a counselor or a family member right now. We understand it’s not easy to talk to someone about what goes on in your head. However, we recommend that you create a birth mother journal for your New Year’s resolution. It’s just like your typical journal from maybe when you were a child. It’s private, and your thoughts and concerns about your adoption journey can be written down. This birth mother journal can be about anything you feel or think or want to even out during and after the pregnancy. Just writing down what is happening can possibly give you a better grasp of what is happening and your decisions. Sometimes reading them out in words is better than juggling all the decisions and things you have to do in your head. Think of it as compartmentalizing your mind and lessening the burdens on your shoulders. You are a birth mother going through an experience close to the New Year. Make it a goal to write consistently in your birth mother journal. - Send a Gift or Letter to Your Colorado Baby
You may be a birth mother who decided it was best to have no contact at all with the adoptive family or your child. We support that decision and will be here for any support after the adoptive family gives the baby. However, if you still want to send something important to the child for their future, such as a gift or letter, we will be happy to send that to the adoptive family. It is okay that you do not want to contact the child and may not change your mind in the future. However, if you want to relay an important message or send a gift that is a memento for a resolution, make it a mission to send something that is from the heart that your child must have and know about. You made the hard decision to choose this adoption type, but it doesn’t mean you didn’t care about your child. Make that step for yourself and the baby.
New Year’s Resolutions in a Colorado Adoption
Adoption Choices of Colorado wishes you a very happy and healthy New Year. We hope your resolutions during or after the adoption process get fulfilled. For all birth mothers, we hope you begin a new leaf into the new year of 2022 and do what’s best for your child but, most importantly, yourself.
If you are facing an unplanned pregnancy and want to learn more about your adoption options, contact Adoption Choices of Colorado by email, phone, or text: Email Us, Text us: 720-371-1099, Call us: 303-670-4673 (HOPE). If you are hoping to adopt, please contact us here.
Meet the Author: Gabrielle Maya is a recent graduate from New Jersey City University, earning her Bachelor of English Creative Writing and Minor in Women’s Gender Studies. She specializes in writing about topics regarding women, pop culture, books, and DIYs. Her blogs and articles have appeared on The Red Eye Media Group, Kiss and Tell Magazine, and Bookstr. She has also written poetry and flash fiction for New Jersey City University’s online Hype Magazine. Gabrielle also has a bookstagram where she posts daily reads. She enjoys streaming her favorite Korean Dramas, Anime. She is a bookworm to the core, reading several titles a week ranging from fantasy, poetry, fiction, and dystopian. She is social media savvy and creates visual content on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram. She loves analyzing novels and having open, controversial conversations. Her writing is geared towards women because of her past insecurities with her body and voice. Gabrielle is a quick learner and open to writing any type of content.
Stephanie joined the Adoption Choices family in 2014 as the Child Placement Supervisor. Her love for adoption began in first grade when she made friends with twins adopted from Vietnam. Her heart grew strong over the years for adopted children and ultimately led her to graduate school where she continued her focus to her dream of working in the adoption field. Stephanie earned a Master of Social Work degree from the University of Denver in 2001. Over the past 15 years, Stephanie has worked as a pregnancy counselor and as an adoptive parent counselor for foster care, international adoption and domestic adoption, writing hundreds of home studies for families, and helping build their forever families. Stephanie is married and has three boys ages 12, 9, and 5. Together with her family she enjoys riding bike, playing games, watching her three sons compete in their various sporting and musical activities and go on vacations.
Christy Ikeler, is our Executive Director and Birth Parent Director. Christy has been with Adoption Choices Team for 18 years, since opening the doors in 2002! Christy has a true passion for what she does and her true love is working with and helping each birth parent. Whether she is up all night on the phone talking with them, taking them to doctors appointments, out for their favorite treat, providing counseling or at the hospital during labor and delivery, Christy is very involved every step of the way. She has a contagious laugh and a spunky personality that our birth moms all can bond with and relate to. As an adoptive parent herself, adoption holds a very special place in her heart and she can relate on every level with both birth parents and adoptive parents. In her free time Christy loves spending time with her daughter, gardening, baking and taking vacations with her family. Christy is an excellent leader for our team at Adoption Choices and is truly one of a kind!! As Executive Director, Christy spends time with the staff, birth parents and adoptive families in order to ensure that the agency is running smoothly. She has placed a huge emphasis on community outreach and programs for birth parents. Christy loves the opportunity to lead the agency into a brighter future.
Ms. Mackenzie has built a successful counseling career over the past 20 years, supporting mothers and families, people of all ages and genders, students, community professionals and fellow clinicians. Liv values a diverse professional focus, including the entrepreneurial life of a sole proprietor, the evaluative process of certifying foster/adoptive homes, the insightful and mindful one-on-one one work with enthusiastic clients, and serving as an advocate for underserved populations. Liv is a Licensed Professional Counselor and holds a BA in Pre-Law and Economics from American University, an MA in Counseling from Adams University and a certificate in Human Resource Management from Villanova University. Away from work you will find Liv spending time in nature, biking to the farmer’s market and adventuring with her family.
Catherine A. Madsen, joined the Adoption Choices family as legal counsel in 2013. Catherine is responsible for providing legal guidance to the Agency, training and updating staff on developments in adoption law and legislation, and program development. Catherine
Virginia Frank is an adoption attorney accredited since 1991 with the American Academy of Adoption Attorneys. Ms. Frank is a leader in the field of private adoption and has completed over 4,000 adoptions in her career. Ms. Frank has a law degree from Oklahoma City University and a BA in both Political Science and Communications from the University of Oklahoma.
Cassidie has been with Adoption Choices since 2015, she has her bachelors in Interdisciplinary Affairs with concentrations in both Sociology and Business Management. Cassidie has additional training in Victim Advocacy, foster care and has been working in women’s services for over 10 years. Cassidie has always had a heart for adoption and it was her career dream to work in adoption. She started off doing volunteer work for advocacy programs, adoption organizations and worked in High Risk Maternal Fetal Medicine through the University of Colorado Hospital and Children’s Hospital of Colorado. Cassidie is also blessed to have personally experienced an adoption of her own in 2012, completing her family of five! Cassidie loves what she does as a case worker from initial phone calls, meetings, doctor appointments, interaction with the adoptive families to delivery and counseling. Cassidie has a passion for those in need and strives to help make a difference in the lives of the people she meets. She is a firm believer in being kind, compassionate and open minded in all situations. “Unless you’ve walked in their shoes, there’s no place for judgment. A kind word or compliment can go a long way!” The bittersweet moments in adoption reminds Cassidie each and every time, why she loves what she does!