If you haven’t noticed from my previous posts, my book, The Ball’s in Her Court is about a woman who was adopted out of foster care and decides she needs answers to her past. With National Adoption Awareness month looming in November, I want to do a series of posts about people’s adoption stories, as well as some about reuniting with family down the road. It’s such a difficult process–on both ends.

So everyone knows about adoption, but how many people have heard of open adoptions, where the lines of communication remain opened between the birth families and adoptive families? This can range from yearly letters back and forth, to including the birth families in major celebrations and backyard picnics.

There is quite a bit of controversy about open adoptions in some circles, just as there will always be controversy about adoptees and birth families searching for each other years later. The fact is, there are no pat answers, and no two situations are the same. No matter which road those involve choose, adoption is something ripe with emotion on all sides, both good and bad. I hope to celebrate the good during the month of November and hope you’ll join me.

And, if you have a story about adoption, foster care, or adoptive reunion that you’d like to share, please send me an email at heather@heatherjustesen.com. If anyone would prefer to remain anonymous, I’d be happy to keep their identities secret.