What Are My Options? Who's Going to Adopt My Baby? Frequently Asked Questions Where Can I Turn For Help? Meet Some Waiting Adoptive Parents
What Are My Options Who Makes an Adoption Plan? How Does The Process Work? What Is The Cost? What Else Should I Know? Waiting Families
For Adoptees Resources
Who Are We? Why Did We Start FFTA? Board of Directors News FFTA Memories Working with FFTA
Stories Photos
Forever Families Through Adoption
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February 2012
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What's New At FFTA?

Now that the rush of the holiday season has drawn to a close, perhaps we are focused on resolutions we have made for the coming year and how to keep them alive. As we begin this new year, we offer several thoughts on staying motivated and inspired, no matter where in the adoption process you may find yourself.

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For Adoptees

Reunions

Reunions between birth family members have been the subject of books, articles, and television shows. Two important themes emerge from these accounts:

1. Participants should be emotionally prepared for the reunion experience: Adopted persons and birth parents may carry a picture in their mind of the perfect family, but the reunion experience may not live up to that ideal. In preparing for contact and reunion, adopted persons should prepare for a whole range of realities, including rejection. Although most birth parents are agreeable to further contact, research indicates that a minority, perhaps 9 to 15 percent, reject any contact.

2. Pacing the contact can be key to having a successful reunion and relationship: In a small study of adopted women who experienced reunions with birth kin, it was found that successful reunion experiences were associated with (1) preparation with a support group and (2) a slower pace between initial contact and actual meeting, involving letters and phone calls. This interval between contact and meeting allowed information to be exchanged and gave the "found" relatives some time to become accustomed to the idea. Such an interval can also give the found relatives time to share the news with spouses and children in their family, if they desire.