Open Adoption—The Option to Maintain Regular Contact

For many, the idea of an open adoption is a little unnerving. Adoptive parents fear that they’ll continually run into the birth parents at the mall or the grocery store, and that children will have a difficult time understanding that their adoptive home is now their home. Studies show, though, that open adoption has, for the most part, improved the lives of adoptees.

Advocates of open adoption point to a number of factors that suggest that open adoptions are not such a strange concept. They argue that essentially what has happened is that the child’s number of relatives has increased because of the adoption. They point out that this happens in many other ways, including marriage and childbirth. Some studies show that adoptive parents often relate better to birthparents than they do to their own siblings, parents or other blood relatives, contending that birthparent-adoptive parent relationships are made by choice, whereas blood family ties are not. This, they suggest, stems from the fact that birth mothers tend to choose adoptive parents with whom they have similarities.

The relationships between adoptive children, birthparents and adoptive parents can take a variety of forms in an open adoption, as agreed upon by the parties. Some maintain regular contact, but others only see each other on birthdays or other designated days.

Contact Adoption Attorneys Cofsky & Zeidman, LLC

At the law office of Cofsky & Zeidman, LLC, our lawyers bring more than 25 years of experience to every matter we handle. Attorney Donald C. Cofsky has personally handled more than 1,500 adoption proceedings since joining the bar in 1974. Attorney Bruce D. Zeidman has protected the interests of clients in state and federal courts in New Jersey and Pennsylvania since 1984. We understand the challenges you face, and can help you identify all your options so that you can make good decisions that are in your best long-term interests.

Contact our office online or call us at (856) 429-5005 in Haddonfield, NJ, at (856) 429-5005 in Woodbury, NJ, or in Philadelphia, PA, at (856) 429-5005.