The Benefits of Semi-Open Adoption
Semi-open adoption is a plan that marries the open adoptions and closed adoptions. The birth mother and adoptive parents only have contact through a third party system. This allows you to get updates regarding your child’s health and wellbeing while maintaining your privacy. Many birth mothers have a desire to not pursue an in person relationship with their child they placed for adoption, but they also want to feel secure knowing their child is happy and healthy.
Semi-open adopts a middle ground that allows for both desires to be met. Adoption Choices of Colorado uses ChildConnect to send updates to birth mothers. If you are thinking about this type of adoption, consider the following benefits of semi-open adoption.
The Benefits of Semi-Open Adoption for Birth Mothers
Prioritizes Privacy
If you do not want to have a direct relationship with your child and anonymity feels important to you, then semi-open adoption allows you to prioritize your own need for confidentiality. Using our agency to mediate communication allows you to check in on your child without them knowing your identity or contact information directly. Many birth mothers find this deeply comforting and essential to their adoption wishes.
Provides Assurance
While many birth mothers wish to pursue confidentiality, wanting your identity to remain private does not mean you have no desire to have a connection with your child. Semi-open adoptions permits adoptive parents to communicate through our secure, private online portal to the birth mother. This, in turn, allows for updates and photos to be shared in a confidential way. Knowing you will stay in touch with your child as they grow older in this way can be really comforting and important to many birth mothers’ process.
Aids in the Grieving Process
It is completely normal for birth mothers to grieve their child. Placing your child for adoption can bring up many emotions including shame, fear and joy all at once. While some birth mothers’ benefit from an open adoption, others really need the combination of space and assurance that open adoption allows for. It is vitally important to understand what is going to best serve you in your grieving process and pursue the type of adoption plan that best meets these needs.
The Benefits of Semi-Open Adoption for Adoptees
Connection to Their Culture
Many adoptees have a desire to connect with their birth family and the culture that they come from. Particularly as a child grows older, it is common for them to desire a connection with their birth family and to incorporate that heritage into their identity as an adoptee. It can be a gift for your child’s adoptive parents to share that they send you updates and will continue to. This provides a level of contact and ongoing connection that can deeply bolster a young adoptee’s self esteem as they find a more holistic identity within their adoptive family. This sense of confidence can be incredibly beneficial developmentally.
Pre-established Boundaries
Many adopted children who are in closed adoptions express a desire to reach out to their birth parent(s). If an in-person connection is not something you desire, an semi-open adoption can be the perfect way to have contact with pre-established boundaries around those interactions. Working with your Adoption Choices caseworker to establish a plan that outlines the frequency and content that you expect from update creates a pre-existing set of boundaries and guidelines for your contact going further for your child. This framework is mutually beneficial for you and your child.
The Benefits of Semi-Open Adoption
Semi-open adoption is a relatively new adoption that more and more birth mothers are choosing. It creates the perfect middle ground for birth mothers navigating an unplanned pregnancy and desiring to both keep their privacy as well as to feel comfortable knowing that their child is safe and well.
Adoption Choices of Colorado offers free counseling to birth mothers as well as any birth fathers or family members in need of support in navigating the adoption process. Discussing your desires and what will best serve you in the grieving process with your counselor can provide clarity in deciding whether semi-open adoption is the best plan for you. Many mothers have experienced the powerful benefits of this type of adoption. Space can be deeply important to grieving and establishing agreed upon updates can allow for a connection while protecting your confidentiality and supporting your personal wellbeing throughout the process.
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, Call us: 720-371-1099, Call or Text us: 303-670-4673 (HOPE). If you are hoping to adopt, please contact us here.
Meet the Author: Kara Bringewatt is an English major and psychology minor at Queens University of Charlotte. She plans to get her masters in social work and work at a nonprofit as a case manager for at-risk youth. She loves using writing as a means of creating community and bringing attention to causes she’s passionate about.
Kara is particularly interested in educational and mental health interventions for young people in foster care. She’s worked as a tutor, professional caregiver, preschool teacher and acting instructor, and loves being able to utilize her wide range of passions to support young people and plans on being a foster and adoptive parent.
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!