Interfamily Adoptions

In this short series on interfamily adoptions, I shared with you the story of one birthmother whose parents adopted her daughter. Today, I’d like to share the story of two sisters; one sister adopted the other sister’s baby. I recently had the opportunity to ask the birthmother in this interfamily adoption a few questions. There are eight years between sisters M and A with A. being the elder sister. M. says that she has always looked up to her older sister, been able to talk with her easily about anything, and is much closer to this sister than any of her other siblings. When M. found herself in an unplanned pregnancy, she and her boyfriend decided that making an adoption plan… [more]

One scenario of an interfamily adoption could be a situation where the grandparents are the parents, meaning one the child’s set of grandparents adopt him or her becoming his/her legal parents. This is the case for fellow birthmother, J. Her parents adopted her daughter K, who is now ten. I had the opportunity to ask J a few questions about how their interfamily adoption is working out and will share the questions and answers with you as they provide interesting first hand insight into an interfamily adoption. How has this interfamily adoption affected family dynamics? “I no longer have the support from my family that I had growing up. My mom was always my best friend I could talk to about anything. Things… [more]

One form of open adoption that we do not talk about too often is interfamily adoptions. Interfamily adoptions, also known as relative adoptions, involved direct biological relatives of the child adopting the child. The family member who adopted and is raising the child could be birthmother’s sister and her husband, an aunt and uncle, or even her parents. In many states, relative adoptions are treated less formally than non relative adoptions. Sometimes they require a shortened home study or none at all if they meet that particular state’s definition of “relative.” States determine the definition of relative by the degree of relatedness. In most cases, parents, siblings, aunts, and uncles, all meet the requirements of a relative. Cousins and other… [more]