What is it about Texas adoption that seems so popular? Why are so many out-of-state couples trying to adopt babies in Texas? Are there that many more females planning adoptions here? What advantages to placing  parents or adoptive parents in Texas keeping their adoption plans in-state? What makes Texas such a popular target for adoption advertisers and adoption facilitators from all across the country, especially when Texas law makes it clear that both are prohibited? Is adoption really bigger in Texas, or is that just a tall tale? Texas Adoption: What You Should Know Obviously, Texas is ..read more

March is Social Work Month, so what better time to express our thanks to all the hardworking social workers who help make adoption a possible option for parents in need? This month, those of us who work at Abrazo can’t help but think of all the extraordinary social workers we’re blest to know and work with, year in and year out. We’ve known far too many to mention them all by name, of course. (And it’s important to note that not everyone who works in social services is actually a social worker.) But we’d like to tell you about some of the remarkable social work professionals who have truly mad ..read more

She already has six children she is raising as a single mom, but pregnant again, she’s drawn the line at another, and when asked why, she replied “because adoption is better.” Better than what, we asked? She looked around her cluttered two bedroom apartment, at her preschool-aged twins fighting in the living room and the toddler asleep in his high chair and answered wearily: “better than this.” It isn’t just that she’s tired, she assured us. With no spouse, no family support, no job, no car, three kids in school and three still at home, she’s got no time for herself. She has little hope of imp ..read more

When you’re thinking about adoption for your baby or you’re considering giving up a child for adoption, it seems like everybody’s got something to say, good or bad, but what’s the truth about adoption? (And where do you find the truth, when it seems like the whole world is for or against adoption?) To be honest, you’ll find an unlimited number of opinions online or even in the grocery store line. After all, just about everybody know someone who was adopted or who adopted or who gave a baby up for adoption. So here’s a starter pack of things you should know, from an adoption agency that’s been ..read more

Once again, it’s time for the nation to again raise the question: when will Texas honor adoptees’ rights? After all, it comes up, again and again, Whenever the Texas Legislature reconvenes, those who care about civil rights and those who care about adoptees rally to the cause, to try to pass much-needed legislation to give adults adopted in Texas the right to their original birth record. It shouldn’t be a big problem, normally, After all, every other American adult has a civil right to request a state-issued copy of their own original birth certificate. It’s called a “vital record” for a reaso ..read more

Most people are still surprisingly unaware of how adoption has changed over the years. It used to be that American adoptions were kept secret. Folks whispered about “girls in trouble” who went away to a maternity home to hide being “pregnant out of wedlock” and to “give a baby up for adoption,” never knowing where the child went. Birthmothers were expected to forget it ever happened, and to go on to marry and “have children of their own” later on in life. The adoptive couples were typically ashamed of “being barren” and were urged not to tell anyone they had adopted– including the adopted chil ..read more

Dear Adoption Scammer, you apparently forgot that you’d met us before, when you came to talk with us this month about giving up a baby you’re not really going to deliver in March? You didn’t seem to recognize us, even though we already knew it was you. Yet the moment you walked in the restaurant you asked us to meet you at, all our suspicions were confirmed. Because your act really hasn’t changed much over the years. (By the way: adoption fraud is still against the law, no matter what the motive behind it might be.) We first met you in 2018, when you introduced yourself as Nadine G, age 18. Yo ..read more

At least half of the birthparents whom Abrazo serves have opted for placing while parenting. If you’re not sure what that means, you’re not alone, because most people still assume that birthparents who place are young teenagers who couldn’t possibly raise a child on their own. In reality, though, most of the women who have “given children up for adoption” (as many folks still refer to placing a child) are already mothers of other children. (Most are great moms, in fact.) That tends to catch folks off-guard. “Why would someone who already is a mother give a baby up for adoption?” Many people as ..read more

For all the thousands of holiday travelers whose airline reservations get waylaid due to bad weather, the stakes could be no greater than it is for those whose adoption travel plans get complicated due to airline cancellations. Couples doing an open adoption typically know, if they aren’t locals, that the adoption process will ordinarily require at least 3 trips here: to meet once matched, to be here for the actual placement, and to attend finalization of the adoption in Bexar County 6-18 months later. Adoption travel costs are an additional expense not included in the agency’s case estimate ..read more

Lots of people have lots of different feelings about pregnancy, of course, but if there’s one universal truth, it’s likely this: a baby changes everything. People of faith are reminded, this time of year, about the Holy Birth, in which a pregnant and unmarried teenager in a land far away and a time long ago had a baby she wasn’t expecting. She and her “betrothed,” at the time, agreed to keep the facts of the conception to themselves, to spare her reputation, but some angels and shepherds and magi came along and the birth in the manger became one of the most famous L&D tales of all time… be ..read more