BellaOnline Forums Family Adoption An adoption success story

Nearly seven years ago my younger sister arranged for the open adoption of her then unborn baby. The arrangement from the very beginning was that she would have almost unlimited access to the baby, and there would be visits including extended family as well. Although we had all agreed to these terms, no one knew how things would evolve in time to come.
So here we are, almost seven years later. We have celebrated biological birth in the "adopted" family, birthdays, Christmases, among other activites and get-togethers.
The other day someone had remarked that the average length of contact between a birth-parent and the child is two years, and contact with extended family is almost unheard of.
We couldn't imagine having it any other way.

Congratulations on this successful relationship. I am a birth mother from 1978, a few months after I graduated high school and have no clue where he is and it would cost a lot of money to do a search. I considered it when he was turning 18, but my son had been diagnosed with autism and so the timing was off and now I have two kids on the spectrum and would like to find him to let him know this might be in the genes.

There are many books on reunions and I need to read some of them to gain insight and start my search. Times certainly have changed since my experience with adoption and Catholic Charities.