In my last post, I discussed some of the reasons that your family may be hesitant and leery of open adoption. A lot of those reasons stem from the fact that they are not very educated about the ins and outs of open adoption. If it’s really important to you that other family members be a part of this open adoption too, then you will need to educate them on open adoption a little bit to help them overcome their concerns, fears, and misconceptions regarding open adoption.

Below are a few ways that you can help your family come to terms with open adoption and (hopefully) participate in your open adoption.

• Educate and empower them with information about open adoption and the benefits of open adoption for the child. Share links to websites about open adoption, newspaper and magazine articles that relate to open adoption, etc.



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• Share positive newspaper articles, websites, magazine articles, statistics, etc. that pertain to open adoption.



• Explain why open adoption is important to you and why you think it would be important for them to be involved.



• Let them know that you understand the emotional side of open adoption and visiting with your child. Explain how you feel and leave the door open for them to discuss their feelings about open adoption with you.

There are not a ton of resources out there for extended birth family members, but below are a few more specifically for birth grandparents involved in open adoption.

• Can a Child Have too Many Grandma’s? (Great article by Brenda Romanchick)



• Birth Grandmother’s: What is Your Role?



• Life Grandmothers (Section for birth grandparents on the Life mothers website with links to a few other resources.)

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Related Posts:
Family and Adoption Part 1
Open Adoption Despite the Disapproval
Birth Grandparents http://open.adoptionblogs.com/weblogs/birth-grandparents