Adoption is filled with many pre-adoption fears. I was incredibly fearful before I adopted my child. Will I pass the home study? What if I am never matched with an expecting mother? Would the adoption fall through? Would the birth mother come back into our lives while my child was still a minor? Would my adopted child reject me when he is grown?

These were all fears that I felt from the perspective of an infertile woman who desperately wanted to adopt a baby, but what about the pre-adoption fears of an expecting mother or father? I can only imagine their fears: Am I making the right decision? Will the adoptive parents love my baby? Will my baby be safe? Will my baby understand why I placed him for adoption? Will I ever see my baby again? Will my baby want to see me when she is grown? Will the adoptive parents honor the terms of the open or semi-adoption?

My extended family had their own fears.