As You Work Through
the Steps of Adoption

As you work through the steps to adoption, from the initial research and contact to the placement after delivery, it is important to remember that you will be confronted with a wide range of emotions, objections and encouragements. This is normal. In fact, you might be surprised at how many women go through the same things you are experiencing. Each year, more than 130,000 children are adopted in the United States!

There is no set beginning or finish line to cross for the issues and questions that surround adoption. At times, these issues will be voiced by people that are a part of your life. At other times these will be your thoughts that you contemplate and think through. You will hear that in order to place your baby for adoption you must not love your child, when the truth is that adoption plans are only created through pure, unselfish love.

You might be told that "you don't have it any harder than anyone else," but the point they're missing is that it's not about you. The thought might occur to you that your child will always hate and resent you but repeated studies have shown that adopted children have positive, thankful views of their birth mothers. These issues are, at times, not easy to examine. There will not be a time in your life when you will have forgotten about your decision and experience. But you will heal from the loss, it is not a lifelong process, and you can find great peace and comfort in your unselfish act of love.