If you're an adoptee, birth parent, adoptive parent or family member you'll leave these pages with a better understanding of closed adoption. Adoption affects not just adoptees, birth mothers and adoptive families, but the larger society as we struggle to understand the issues created by closed adoptions, and as adoptees and birth mothers live their lives with the legacy of this practice. Adoptees are the only North American citizens barred by law, unless under very specific and highly controlled circumstances, from learning the name of the woman who gave birth to them or the names of their genetic ancestors.
Closed adoption hurts everyone.
Adoption secrets can hurt the adoptee, the birth family and ultimately the adoptive parents who must struggle to parent with little to no information about the adoptee's genetic background and ancestry. In Michelle McColm's Adoption Pages, adoptees and birth mothers talk about their experiences of loss, reunion, and healing through prose, poetry and stories of reunion and synchronicity. Stories from adoptees and birth mothers about their adoption and reunion experiences are welcome. Visit our Editor's Pages to submit your writing for consideration.