newborn adoption

Dear Adoption Maharishi: Why is My Birth Child’s Family so Much Like My Own?

Submitted by Adoption_Maharishi on Wed, 08/18/2010 - 06:07

Dear Adoption Maharishi,

I placed my baby for adoption when I was a teenager because I was being sexually abused by my father and wanted to “save” her. I chose the adoptive parents myself. I recently reunited with my birth child and was horrified to learn that she had been sexually abused by her adoptive father. I went through the agony of adoption to save my baby from abuse, but she still suffered anyhow. I am wracked with guilt over choosing an abuser to parent my baby. How could this have happened?

~ Distraught

Infant Adoption and Circumcision

Submitted by FaithA on Wed, 03/03/2010 - 07:17

Baby (c) Lynda BernhardtWho decides whether an infant being placed for adoption will be circumcised or not? The short answer is whoever has custody of the baby.

When we adopted our newborn baby boy, the social worker told us that the birth mother wanted the baby circumcised. There was never a discussion about how we felt about circumcision. If we wanted to adopt this baby, he would be placed into our home already circumcised. We probably would have requested a circumcision regardless, but we really did not have an opinion on the subject one way or the other. Quite honestly, with everything else that was going on at the time, whether or not the baby would be circumcised in the hospital didn’t even make my list of concerns.

However, there are some people, both birth parents and adoptive parents, who might feel very strongly about circumcision. For example, an Orthodox Jewish family might feel very strongly about the baby not being circumcised until he is eight days old for religious reasons. Having a two-day-old baby placed into the home already circumcised could be a very big deal to that adoptive couple.

What are the Chances of a Newborn Baby Being Adopted?

Submitted by FaithA on Wed, 01/07/2009 - 09:15

Lotus bud (c) Lynda BernhardtI was scanning through a list of questions that people used to find Adoption Under One Roof, and I was surprised to come across the following one:

What are the chances of a newborn baby on being adopted?

This question surprised me because, as somebody who had to wait a long time to adopt a newborn baby, the answer seemed obvious to me. However, somebody who is new to adoption might not know the answer to this question, so I thought I would address it.

The short answer is that newborn babies do not have to wait for an adoptive home. There are multiple hopeful adoptive families waiting to adopt each newborn baby that becomes available for adoption.