The Top 4 Positive Emotions You can Expect after Placing Your Baby for Adoption
Nine months have gone by in the blink of an eye. As you lay in your hospital bed, you marvel at just how much has happened. You created an adoption plan, selected your child’s adoptive parents, deciding what type of adoption you wanted and what kind of relationship you wanted to have with the adoptive parents post placement. You watch as the adoptive parents carefully scoop up your newborn. You had expected to feel awful in this moment. To feel an overwhelming sense of sadness. But, you find that’s impossible. The look on the adoptive parents’ faces warms your heart and brings tears to your eyes.
If you are considering adoption for you and your child, or are in the midst of the adoption process, you may wonder at how you’ll feel the day your child is born. Unfortunately, there is no answer for this. Adoption is a complex and emotional process and impacts each and every birth mother differently. However, the feelings you experience are not all negative.
In fact, Adoption Choices of Colorado has put together a resource of the top four positive emotions you can expect after placing your baby for adoption to give you more insight into this..
1. Relief that the Adoption Process is Over
You pack up your belongings and take one last look around your hospital room. It’s over. The months of planning and preparation. The stress, anxiety and freak out moments. All the tears and sleepless nights, wondering if everything will be okay. Your child has just left with their new adoptive family. In a few short days, they will go before a judge in court and make everything official. You breathe a huge sigh of relief. A smile creeps across your face as you turn and walk out of the hospital. You’ve made it!
If you feel relief that the adoption process is over, that is perfectly okay! This is natural and to be expected. There is no shame in feeling this emotion, and it doesn’t mean that there’s anything wrong. The adoption process can be a stressful thing to go through, and you may not realize just how many emotions you were holding on to until everything is over.
2. Confidence in Your Choice
The adoptive parents have sent you the first update! Eagerly, you log into your email. It’s been a few months, and you’ve been anxious to learn how everything is going. Is your birth child still alright? Are the adoptive parents adjusting to parenthood? Are they all bonding and getting along? The first image you see is of your birth child with a big smile on their face. This is exactly what you needed.
It’s moments like this that you can be confident you made the right choice. When you know, without a shadow of a doubt, that your birth child is happy and that their life with the adoptive parents is going well. This means everything to you.
3. Peace of Mind
Now that your child is with his or her new family, you don’t have to worry about their well-being anymore. You can freely resume what you were doing before you became pregnant. Whether this was looking at graduate programs, striving towards a desired job promotion or raising your other children, you have peace of mind and can maintain focus on what’s happening in your own life. This may mean giving yourself some much needed self-care as well, as you ease back into your everyday activities.
Perhaps you didn’t feel that your adoption journey was all that stressful. Perhaps you didn’t realize just how worried and anxious you were until it was all over. Yet, now that the next phrase of your adoption journey has begun, you can see things in a different light. You can feel at peace with your choice and that it’s okay to healthfully continue on with your life.
3. Hope for the Future
Deciding to place your baby for adoption was one of the most difficult decisions you ever made. There were so many times where you fought with yourself, told yourself you could handle it, and struggled with whether or not you should change your mind. You battle depression and discouragement. But, deep down, you know all along what was best for you and your baby.
This has brought you to where you and your baby are today. With the help of Adoption Choices of Colorado, your baby is happy and healthy, living life with a loving adoptive family. You’re also thriving. Something you knew wouldn’t be possible if you’d kept your child. For the first time in what seemed a long time, you feel hope. You have hope for the future. Not only for your own, but also hope for your child and the adoptive parents.
Positive Emotions You can Expect after Placing Your Baby for Adoption
After placing your baby for adoption, you may feel many different emotions. All too often, we assume that this means negative. That you will be overcome with grief, depression and sadness. That you will be unable to carry on. But that is not the case. There are also many positive emotions you can expect after placing your baby for adoption.
Adoption impacts each and every birth mother differently, as no two adoption journeys are alike. There may, of course, be times of challenge and feelings that aren’t the happiest. Yet, the important thing to remember is that when you choose adoption for you and your baby, you may be surprised at just how blessed, loved and supported you feel.
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.
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!