Post-Placement Workbook
Introduction
Working through issues, dealing with grief, and striving towards a healthy open relationship with the adoptive family and your birth child.
- Introduction
- Part 1: Accepting Where You Are Now
- Part 2a: Expectations of the Adoptive Family
- Part 2b: Expectations of Friends & Family
- Part 2c: Expectations of Yourself
- Part 3: Reality of Openness
- Part 4: To Be a Birthparent
- Part 5: Conclusion
You’ve chosen your child’s adoptive parents, the placement has been done, and perhaps you’ve even had several visits by now. This workbook is designed to help you continue to sort through post-placement issues surrounding the openness you've chosen. Many birthparents feel, after placement, that they’ve just stepped onto an emotional roller coaster. While you may be elated that the family you’ve chosen is so wonderful and have no doubt in your mind that you’ve made the right choice, you also are very much grieving the loss of your child, as his/her parent. Trying to be happy while grieving is difficult and you may have a tendency to ignore some of the more painful feelings.
This workbook is designed to help you honor all the emotions that come with an open adoption, to help you sort through both the highs and the lows, setting you up for a peaceful, flexible relationship with the adoptive family and with yourself.
Prepare to face some inner challenges, look ahead to your future, and perhaps face some issues from your past that may be getting in the way of your moving forward. Regardless, we hope that this workbook will give you a sense of direction as well as a peace that helps you to know that you are most definitely not alone.
