Gift Ideas

A friend of mine sent me a wonderful book recently, "In On It: What adoptive parents would like you to know about adoption" by Elisabeth O'Toole. There's been so much written for members of the triad, what a great idea to have a resource for all the friends and family that support the triad members! A point I try hard to make in all of my books and speaking is that my choice to place my son for adoption was not just my own - it was a choice that had a profound effect on my entire family. I also know that my son's adoptive parents choice to create a family through adoption had a profound effect on their family… [more]

Many adoptive and birth families that I have talked with have said that while they normally love gift giving, choosing a present for the "other side" can be difficult. Reasons include not knowing the size a child/adult now wears, not knowing them intimately enough to guess what a good gift would be or not knowing their new interests (among many other reasons). It's true, of course. Interests change. Children (and adults!) grow. And without that day-to-day contact, it's hard to decide whether something you feel will be a good gift really will. As such, I recommend that birth and adoptive families in open adoptions remove the guesswork and make lists. I know it sounds boring. I know it removes the "thrill of the hunt" when searching for… [more]

A reader recently asked this question: “This Christmas will be my (birth) daughter’s first Christmas. She is just three months old and I am struggling with what to get her. What do you give a three month old?” Obviously a three month old isn’t going to know what you have given her. She won’t remember it later. But as a birthmother, I can understand why you want to give her a gift and why it is stressful to come up with a gift that is just right. Charlie was just around three months old his first Christmas and I can remember thinking the same thing. Babies of that age don’t really play with toys yet and Charlie had all the clothes a boy his age could wear… [more]

I love gifts that incorporate a child’s photo into the gift and nowadays there are so many different kinds of gifts that you can give that use a photo. These gifts are great for anyone in a child’s birth family such as their birthmom or birth grandparents and some are also appropriate for a birthmom to give her child. Below are some of my favorite photo gifts. Calendar ~ You can have calendars made nowadays that feature a different chosen photo for each month. I don’t know any birthmother who wouldn’t love a calendar starring her child! I just made one of these easily through Shutterfly using pictures of Noah as a gift for my parents and it was a lot of fun to put together… [more]