Many times in the news we see adoption stories gone bad. But The Today Show has been sharing a lot of happy and successful stories lately. The show has been celebrating National Adoption Month this week and finalized twelve adoptions live on the air yesterday. It’s so great to see adoption in the mainstream spotlight. It’s probably just because I have adoption on the brain right now, but I’m seeing it everywhere. 

I especially love reading stories like this one: Heartbreak, Hope and Healing: A Birthmother Tells Her Adoption Story about a birthmother who documented her journey to adoption. It’s heartbreaking and heartwarming at the same time, as I think most adoptions are. I’m really struck by the depth and beauty of the special relationships I keep seeing between adoptive mothers and birthmothers. It’s really quite special.

Now that I’m informed, I feel so fortunate that we are adopting during the open adoption revolution. I can’t imagine not knowing–and never knowing–anything about our child’s birthmother or birth family. It just seems so counterintuitive to keep such a vital part of a child’s life hidden from him.

It’s not hard to see why adoptees have struggled so much in the past with not having any information or contact with their birth families. There are thousands of closed-adoption adoptees out there right now searching for some kind of clue–any kind of clue–as to their genetic history. It shouldn’t be that hard for them. If they knew, they could heal and accept. I’m so happy that our baby will not only have our loving family to welcome him or her, but will also retain a link to his heritage, too. Our baby won’t have to search for answers or feel abandoned–he or she will know from day one that his birth family loved him so much they gave him a wonderful life with our family who loves him more than anything in the world.