Open Adoption Roundtable
The Open Adoption Roundtable is a series of occasional writing prompts about open adoption. It's designed to showcase of the diversity of thought and experience in the open adoption community.
Browse through our previous topics and the participants' thoughtful responses via the links below. And if a prompt inspires you, why not write about it yourself? It's never too late!
Roundtable #1: Hindsight What one thing about open adoption would you tell your past self, if you could?
Roundtable #2: Fathers Write about the father(s) in your family's open adoption(s).
Roundtable #3: Wish Lists Share your wish list for your open adoption(s).
Roundtable #4: Small Moments Write about a small moment that open adoption made possible.
Roundtable #5: Self-growth How has open adoption changed you? In what ways are you different because the presence of open adoption in your life?
Roundtable #6: Naming Write about names/naming and open adoption.
Roundtable #7: Privacy Where do you draw the lines--on your blog and in your personal life--and why? What, if anything, don't you tell?
Roundtable #8: Influential Bloggers Write about a blogger (or bloggers) who influenced your real-life open adoption, and how.
Roundtable #9: Arguments Against Openness Some people argue that adopted persons should be free to initiate relationships with their first families--or not--on their own timetable. The parents (first and adoptive) in an adoption shouldn't make such an important and personal decision for them by engaging in fully open adoption. What is your response? Do you agree or disagree? Why?
Roundtable #10: Birthdays I know that birthdays can be an extremely emotional time, for everyone connected to adoption, not just those of us in open adoptions. So what is it that we do, as part of our open adoptions, during the “birthday season”?
Roundtable #11: Holiday Season Write about open adoption and the holiday season.
Roundtable #12: Resolutions Call them resolutions, commitments, changes, or choices--how will you be proactive in the area of open adoption in 2010?
Roundtable #13: Disagreeing About Openness What we don't often discuss is when people on the same side of the triad can't agree on the level of openness in an adoption. How would/do you navigate these situations? Does your current relationship impact the type of open adoption that you have? How does this affect your current relationship?
Roundtable #14: Defining Success If there's one thing we all might agree on, it's that we'd like our open adoptions to be successful. But what does "success" mean to you, when speaking about open adoption? Do you think it may mean something else to the others in your triad?
Roundtable #15: Money Does money have an impact on your open adoption? If so, how?
Roundtable #16: Looking Back Imagine your child as an adult describing their open adoption experience. What do you hope they will be able to say about you? How did you view their other parents? In what ways did you support their relationship with them?
Roundtable #17: What Don't You Share? Are there any things that you don’t want the other members of your triad to know—or that you don’t want to know about them? What don’t you want shared in your adoptive relationships?
