Could you please explain in detail what open adoption is?

Possum

An open adoption can mean many many things.

It can be fully open - meaning that the adoptive parents and bio parents see each other a few times a year / they are in regular contact / the child is allowed to grow up knowing personally of the family that he/she is bio-linked to.

It can be semi open - meaning just a letter and photos now and then.

It's ultimately up for negotiation.
Be aware though - there are many stories of open adoptions being closed down - where either the bio parents back away - or the adoptive parents shut off contact.
Either is extremely cruel for all parties - but especially for the child.
It's best for the child to know - personally - where they came from.

ETA: Open adoptions are NOT law enforceable.

BPD Wife

An open adoption typically means one in which there is some type of communication between the bio family and the adoptive family once the adoption has occurred. This could mean letters, pictures, or even visits. Open adoption really does vary depending on what the families agree to. Our agency requires at least letters be sent to the agency on a yearly basis by the APs to be given to the bio family. However, in our case, the bio parents chose not to be involved in an open adoption. We instead have an open relationship with my son's bio grandparents. They are very much a part of our family - they attend all special occasions, we talk regularly, and visit at least monthly. We spend a week with them every summer. It's like my husband and I gained another set of "in-laws". We have been blessed.

in COGNITO *

There are More levels of openness than can be listed here.

I'll list a few:

Exchanging of pics and letters
Yearly visits with first parents
frequent visits with first parents
visits with entire first family
frequent letters, phone calls and visits with first family
occasional or frequent call/contact with other members of the first family
access to each others myspaces to see what the other has been up to without being "in their business"
weekend/summer visits with first families

Like I said, there are to many combination to list.

happiestgirl0825

In an open adoption, the child & adoptive parents have legal access to the parents (or at least mother's) names. This is so that when the child is older (18) they can contact their birth mother/parent.
Sometimes, the birth mother has an acquaintance with the adoptive parents as well, and receives photo updates, letters, etc.

Louren (mommy of 4) ?

An open adoption is where the biological mother and or father of the adopted child are allowed to see their child. They can visit them in the adopted parents' home and can keep in touch with their kids!

punxy_girl

Possum is the closest to being right. Open adoptions have a very wide range of openness. They go from just knowing information (and this can just be the adoptive families knowing the names of the birthparents) to face to face visits. Often open adoptions have a time limit- a year or 18 months. The most frequent type, I think, is the passage of letters and pictures from the adoptive family to the birthmother thru the adoption agency for a limited period of time (usually a year). This way the birthmother doesn't get the adoptive family's info (name and whereabouts). However, in research where there is continuing face to face visits in very open adoptions it has been found that adoptive families are MORE secure in their feelings about the adoption. Over the course of the adoption, the adoptive parents tend to desire and seek out more contact with the birthfamilies for the sake of the adopted child as time passes while the birthfamilies often desire fewer visits. The latter is thought to result from the fact that the birthfamilies feel that the child is happy and secure in the adoptive family and basically don't worry as much.

Wow. You guys just thumbs downed the research of one of the authors you love to quote so dearly. Must be just because you are anti AP.

baby_doll

adoption is when you adopt a kid that has no home and they live with u cause u r their new parents

Da Baddest In The South!!!!!!!!!

in an open adoption the birth parents give the child away to the adoptive parents theirself and when the child is old enough to understand everything the adoptive parents should tell him about his birth family and the birth parents are allowed to contact the child

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