Helping a child understand where they came from

Openness is all about letting children understand their unique history

Our Belief About Open Adoption

Boys & Girls Aid believes that some form of openness is in the best interest for all involved—especially the child. We help families establish a comfortable degree of openness and help facilitate contact with the birth family.

Openness reassures birthparents that they have made the right decision and it allows a child to know their background and develop a healthier sense of self while growing up. For adoptive families, a pre-arranged agreement means there are set conditions that can be expected and planned for, and it offers the opportunity to better understand a child’s own innate makeup. Each adoption is unique, therefore each openness agreement is unique as well.

Openness is Mutually Agreed Upon

Our trained, compassionate counselors help adoptive families and birthparents explore the amount of openness with which they are comfortable. We believe that an open adoption thrives on mutuality. Contact between parties can take on many forms, resulting in a healthy and satisfying exchange.

Examples of openness:

Exchanging photo/letters
Visiting in-person with birth parent(s)

Keeping a picture of the birth parent in the home/child’s room
Openly talking to the child about their birth story
Reading children’s books about openness

Openness with our agency:

Before an adoption takes place, birthparents and adoptive families sign a mutually agreed upon Open Adoption Agreement.

We also provide ongoing counseling support for our adoptive families and our birthparents via our Post Adoption Program.

Learn more or get started

If you are interested in learning more about how our Infant Adoption Program works, or about openness, please join us at an upcoming infant adoption information session. Information sessions are led by our Director of Adoption Services and include information on how the process works, the fee structure, and a time for questions.