Adoption Symposium - Sept. 23rd & 24th!

Monday, August 15, 2011

Have you heard the news?  I'm co-presenting "How to De-Freakify Open Adoption" with Lori Holden at the Open Adoption Symposium "Realities, Possibilities and Challenges" taking place September 23-24, 2011 at the University of Richmond School of Law.  
Lori Holden is a mom via adoption to two children. She was named a Top 10 Must-Read Mom by Parenting magazine and writes extensively about open adoption parenting at WriteMindOpenHeart. Lori has published several articles in Adoptive Families magazine and is the Open Adoption Examiner.  We are very excited to be opening a dialogue in our community about the many facets of adoption!  
Attendees are expected to be adoptees, birth/first parents, adoptive parents, adoption professionals, therapists, researchers, educators, media professionals, advocates, attorneys, policy makers and legislators. Registration is $85 for the two-day symposium and includes lunches. Registration is open through September 9.

Jim Gritter (LifeGivers, The Spirit of Open Adoption) and Adam Pertman (Adoption Nation) are the keynote speakers at the Open Adoption Symposium. 

Organizer Rebecca Ricardo, Director of Coordinators2Inc (and Richmond Adoptive Families Examiner) says that "attendees will have opportunities to discuss, from multiple viewpoints, adoption as a lifelong process. We do not intend for this symposium to discuss only open adoption nor to only discussion adoption from a positive or negative perspective. We will have a wide range of perspectives to give a full view of the complexity of the issues and to allow attendees an opportunity to consider adoption from a perspective other than their own."

Besides the keynote sessions there are more than 20 workshops presented. Some topics include:
  • Tips from the Trenches: Finding Middle Ground in Open Adoptive Parenting
  • How to De-Freakify Open Adoption
  • Open Adoption: An examination of First/Birth Mothers experiences
  • International Adoption: The journey to raising a secure & resilient child
  • Older Children Adoptions: Opening their truth
  • Openness Options when building a family through third party reproduction
  • My First/Birth Mother Friended Me!: How families can manage contact from Facebook & other media
  • Under the Microscope: Adoption practices during the Baby Scoop Era pertaining to surrendering mothers
A full list of workshops and presenters is available at www.C2ADOPT.ORG.

See you when I see you

Friday, August 12, 2011

So...I'm in love with Jason Aldean (and his newest album, My Kind of Party).  There's one song in particular that reminded me of open adoption the first time I heard it. The song is called "See You When I See You."  If you want to hear a snippet of this musical snack, scroll all the way down to the bottom of my blog and click on this song on my playlist.  If you're a birthmom in an open adoption, this song is definitely worth a listen.

If for some reason you are unable to hear Jason's magical pipes, here are the lyrics to the first part of the song:

Let's don't say goodbye
I hate the way it sounds
So, if you don't mind
Let's just say for now

See you when I see you
Another place, some other time
If I ever get down your way
Or you're ever up around mine
We'll laugh about the old days
And catch up on the new
Yeah, I'll see you when I see you
And I hope its some day soon'


This song reminds me alot of Deanna's adoptive mother, De.  I remember the day Don and De left the hospital with Deanna after she was born.  Though most of the details of that day are a sad, blurry memory for me, there is one positive thing I clearly remember. De made it point to not say goodbye when they left the hospital with Deanna.  Instead, De hugged me and said, "I love you, and I'll see ya soon."  And ever since that day, we continue to say, "see ya soon" instead of goodbye when we see each other.  Just a few weeks ago, De called to catch me up on all of the latest and greatest Deanna stories. After chatting it up for a good 45 minutes about Deanna's 6th birthday party at the beach, her new-found love of all animals (especially horses), and how she is already selling their chickens' eggs to all of the neighbors, I smiled when De said "see ya soon" before we hung up.  Sometimes it's the little things that mean the most. You know what I mean?  I'm so thankful for De and for the way that she is always in-tune to what other people are thinking and feeling, and how she just knows the perfect thing to say.  Even if it's just three little words at the end of a phone call.



















Amy & De, July 2005



















De, Deanna (cheesy-poof mouth), Amy, Spring 2011


See you when I see you
Another place, some other time
If I ever get down your way
Or you're ever up around mine
We'll laugh about the old days
And catch up on the new
Yeah, I'll see you when I see you
And I hope its some day soon'