Adoption Book Review: Megan's Birthday Tree
Saturday April 18, 2009
This is one children's book that about makes me cry every time I read it. The illustrations are beautiful and capture the child's many emotions. The story itself is just as beautiful. Megan's Birthday Tree is about a child who is clearly bonded to her adoptive family and goes to them for reassurance and support, yet is grounded by a child's simple understanding of her history. This book demonstrates what an open adoption could do for a child's sense of identity.
I decided to promote this book today as "open adoption" is a term we are becoming more and more familiar with as adoptive parents are becoming more comfortable with open adoptions.
If you have opened a closed adoption, especially a foster care adoption, click "comments" below and share your experiences or about your process.__________________________________
Suggested Reading
Our daughter who is now 20 was a closed adoption. We decided to open her closed adoption when she was five, on our own. There have been good and not so good comings from that. We had a totally open adoption with her brothers adoption at birth and thought that was the way to go even if it had been closed.
What we found whn we opened her adoption. Her birthmother was deceased. Her birthfather was married and had two other children. Her maternal grandmother,great grandmother and uncles were thrilled.
I do not want to go into detail the things that made that decision to open a two sided sword.
Years later there is still contact by the maternal relatives. The susbstance abuse of her birthfather left her without him now for 6+ years. She is angry with him for choosing that over her.
The opening did answer some of the questions of genes vs environment. I in no way am being nasty or negative but feel my daughter would have never advanced to where she is today had she been raised by her birthfamily. Open adoption is complicated but do not ever become too comfortable that you do not monitor the contact to some degree.
Peace
It all seems to come with pros and cons. Great advice.
Your daughter is lucky to have such an open mom to open a closed adoption. So many people fear it…but she now has answers she may never have found or had to wait for. Keep guiding her through it.
How are your boys’ open adoption different? Seems your daughters was a bit more challenging?
Hi,
I thought your readers and my fellow adoptive parents might be interested in my fourth novel, “Jesse’s Girl,” just published on Amazon.com, since it deals with adoption — a Brooklyn father searches for his adopted teenage son who has run away from a wilderness treatment program to find his biological sister. As an adoptive parent, I funneled the reality into fiction, using those emotional fingerprints we all have.
Thank you for your time.
Gary Morgenstein