The journey through the adoption process is one filled with a tapestry of emotions, and among the most profound is grief. For birth mothers, placing a child for adoption can be an act of profound love and sacrifice, but it often comes with a deep sense of loss. The grief that accompanies this decision is natural and deserves recognition and care. This guide aims at providing an understanding of these complex emotions and offers tools for birth mothers to navigate their grief with compassion and support. The Emotional Landscape of Adoption for Birth Mothers Deciding to place a child for adoptio ..read more

Birth mothers need a strong support system to get them through the emotionally and physically strenuous process of birth and adoption. How can you best be that source of support? Here are a few things you can do to become a better strength and help to these important women, doing such an important thing! Read Up On the Process The first step to investing time and energy into their situation is to learn more about it. Show that you are genuinely interested in the process and ready to be a part of it, by developing a thorough understanding of the steps involved. Websites for adoption platforms ..read more

Being a birth mother and putting your baby up for adoption is physically, mentally and (most of all) emotionally challenging. It is not only smart but essential to find sources of support who will lift and encourage you throughout your process. Unsure where to find that support? Here are a few places to start your search. Support Groups Remember this important fact: you are not alone! There are hundreds of birth mothers going through what you are, each at different parts of the process and each with circumstances that you can relate to. Find support groups of birth mothers, where you can empat ..read more

Unconditional love. What comes to mind when you read that? For some, it may bring up images of someone who loved you that way, and if you’re one of those, I’m rejoicing for you. But what if you’re not one of those? For many people, the words “unconditional love” are just words. Words that feel like a dream. Or a fairy tale. Or a mean joke. Words that were said to you, while simultaneously being used to manipulate. But today, I want to give you a picture that’s a little different. As you may know, An Open Door is a Christian organization, but we understand that the term “Christian” may also ca ..read more

So…you peed on a stick, huh? Sure, there are some women out there who are super excited to see those two little pink lines, but maybe you’re not. Maybe you’re frantically scrolling through Google searches on “unplanned pregnancy” or “pregnancy options” or “plan B.” If that’s you, you probably already know that you have options. If you don’t, we’ll be sharing other posts to talk about those options, and for the time being, we’ll leave you to your Google searching. But if you already know your options, and you’re wondering about adoption, we want to share 3 things that might help to keep in min ..read more

It’s Good Friday, and we thought it was a good Friday to start our new blog! Okay, really, this is just a good day to start and the hashtag works. The real point is…we care about the women we serve, and we want to be here for you, even before you have made decisions or even know you need to make decisions about an unexpected pregnancy. We want to serve you, where you are, in the issues that matter to you, because sometimes figuring out this whole “life” thing can be hard, and even harder to do on your own.  Full disclosure, in case you missed it, we are an adoption agency–An Open Door ha ..read more

A letter from a birthmother.. I was 19 and pregnant. I had met my husband in Seattle, WA and married him when I was 18, he was 26. We were kind of vagabonds at the time, picking up and moving to a new place every few months. We had lived in Seattle, Flint, Michigan, and I was then living in Savannah, Georgia when I was pregnant with my son. I was making dumb choices with my life at that time but knew enough about my choice in husbands that it would be an unsafe, unstable and violent environment to bring any child up in. Abortion was never an option for me and I really had not considered adopt ..read more

It’s here. The moment you know that adoption is what you want for your child… and now you’re going have to tell your friends. You don’t feel obligated to tell them anything. But people ask questions, and what do you say? How do you tell them that you’re not giving up on your child – you’re actually giving her the best life you can imagine for her? You’ve probably confided in your best friend… but what about everyone else? What will they think? We’ve found that these things help: Explain your reasons. They need to know that adoption didn’t mean giving up your child. It meant planning for her ..read more

This might be one of the most beautiful things I’ve read… This is the blog of a birthmother who has so graciously narrated her adoption journey. This is a post you will no doubt be touched by in a deep way. Pregnancy/Adoption: My Unexpected Adventure In four days, my entire life is going to change drastically. My C-section is scheduled for the morning of July 2nd. After months of counting down the days and wishing Little Man would hurry up and be born already, I suddenly realized about a week ago how absolutely terrified I was for his birthday to arrive. I have a tendency to stuff my emotion ..read more

So…you peed on a stick, huh? Sure, there are some women out there who are super excited to see those two little pink lines, but maybe you’re not. Maybe you’re frantically scrolling through Google searches on “unplanned pregnancy” or “pregnancy options” or “plan B.” If that’s you, you probably already know that you have options. If you don’t, we’ll be sharing other posts to talk about those options, and for the time being, we’ll leave you to your Google searching. But if you already know your options, and you’re wondering about adoption, we want to share 3 things that might help to keep in min ..read more