Two people fall in love - they have a baby and all of a sudden, they become mom and dad! The unimaginable joy and pride, the time spent thinking about suitable names; who will they look like? Which kindergarten should they go to? What about saving up for college? And then there's their first word, their first step, their first day at school, their first date. But for some, these dreams are shattered before given the chance to dream - instead of dreaming, they are grieving. These mothers became pregnant too young, haven't enough financial support, were unmarried, the list is endless. Adoption becomes the only option. Parents who aren't ready will never have to worry about bringing up an unwanted child; parents who are unable to have children gain one for whom they can love and care. It's a win-win solution. But no one understands the sense of rejection and abandonment that the child goes through: anger that their records are sealed, furious that they were never told about their adoption, upset that they will never know from whom their talents came. The ideal solution presented itself in the late 1980s: open adoption. This is the perfect process to aid these children in the emotional challenges they encounter.
Lisa Owens, born on the 15th of May, was a product of this experiment, a successful one. Open adoption is a family formation very much like marriage. It's a commitment where two families are able to join together through the child. She is now 36 years of age and a strong, independent mother of two. Lisa shared that she knows she was greatly cherished and that she fully understood the selfless act of unconditional love her birth mother made when transferring her to her adoptive mother. Society assumes that adoption will lead to a psychologically unstable child with low self-esteem and the constant fear of rejection. Open adoption is the clear-cut contradiction of that.
