The Open Adoption Book : A Guide to Adoption without Tears

Rating:
Summary: A must read for anyone considering Open Adoption!
Review: My husband and I are in the very beginning stages of looking into adoption. We were not aware of "open" adoption, until I ran across this book. Both of us were leary, but the book explained open adoption in such detail that we were true believers. The Open Adoption Book not only explains open adoption, but all avenues of adoption to help you dicide on what is best for you and your family. It is written in languange that is understandable and easy to read. I think this book is a must read for anyone considering open adoption.

Rating:
Summary: A must read for anyone considering Open Adoption!
Review: My husband and I are in the very beginning stages of looking into adoption. We were not aware of "open" adoption, until I ran across this book. Both of us were leary, but the book explained open adoption in such detail that we were true believers. The Open Adoption Book not only explains open adoption, but all avenues of adoption to help you dicide on what is best for you and your family. It is written in languange that is understandable and easy to read. I think this book is a must read for anyone considering open adoption.

Rating:
Summary: A must read for anyone considering Open Adoption!
Review: My husband and I are in the very beginning stages of looking into adoption. We were not aware of "open" adoption, until I ran across this book. Both of us were leary, but the book explained open adoption in such detail that we were true believers. The Open Adoption Book not only explains open adoption, but all avenues of adoption to help you dicide on what is best for you and your family. It is written in languange that is understandable and easy to read. I think this book is a must read for anyone considering open adoption.

Rating:
Summary: Not a new edition!
Review: The back cover of this book and amazon's data say that this is a revised edition- not so! The Copyright date on the inside still states 1992. All that's new here is it's a pb edition with a new cover and the exact same chapters and page count.

Rating:
Summary: Concrete information, consumer guide; open adoption works!
Review: The book is designed to be a gentle (not pushy) yet persuassive book on (1) why openness in adoption is so important and (2) why the adoption process is so much faster with an open adoption program (typically within a year).

Rating:
Summary: No such thing as adoption without tears
Review: The Open Adoption Book is A Guide to Adoption Without Tears. I want to live on the planet Dr. Rappaport resides on and so do the tens of thousands of women in the United States who surrender babies every year for adoption. The tears never stop, whatever adoption practice the children were placed under. Read Merry Bloch Jones, Birthmothers and you'll see "the amputation of the heart." Rappaport describes open adoption as though it were a rose garden in which "...close relationships between the adoptive parents and birthparents become almost casual or routine, just as they would be in a biological family. The sense of normalcy is striking" (p. 120). Yes, of course, this may be the case with some open adoption arrangements, but Dr. Rappaport writes that "most open adoption families" consider the presence of the birthparent(s) "just a normal and routine part of their everyday lives." We do not have longitudinal studies that support this view, and common sense tells us that it cannot be true of most open adoption arrangements. We learn in a see-saw of research papers that many birthmothers report that if they had to do it over again they would not have chosen adoption but raised the children themselves. Some would even have chosen abortion over adoption. Mothers relinquishing a child for adoption often tend toward more grief symptoms, especially if the adoption is an open one, than parents who had lost a child to death. Studies show that many mothers using open adoption often feel more socially isolated, express more difficulty with normal everyday life, feel more despair, and express more dependency than their counterparts using confidential adoptions.
Dr. Rappaport's book was published in 1992, but meanwhile we do have more data available. We learn from the largest longitudinal study (720 individuals) conducted by Harold D. Grotevant and Ruth G. McRoy on the full range of adoptive openness, (Openness in Adoption, Exploring Family Connections. Sage 1998): "The clearest policy implication of our work is that no single type of adoption is best for everyone." These authors warn that the long-term impact of openness for all parties in the adoptive kinship network is not known and longitudinal research is necessary to answer this question. Most importantly, the long-term impact of openness on the children is as yet unknown. In fully disclosed open adoption, the child is continually reminded that she has two mothers. This "insistence of differences" is a vulnerability in open-adoption families which professionals and laypersons are concerned about. David H. Kirk's Adoptive Kinship Theory predicts that openness in adoption imposes strains on all parties in the adoption triad as a result of role ambiguity. In their study Openness in Adoption, New Practices, New Issues, (Praeger, 1988) McRoy, Grotevant and White suggest that "The child may be more likely to feel that he is `matched' with his adoptive parents, if he or she is not constantly reminded of the contrast between birthparents and adoptive parents." The authors suggest that Semi-open adoptions (no personal contact between birthmothers and adoptive parents but non-identifying letters through the agency) tend to minimize problems regarding role expectations of adoptive parents and birthparents.
Gisela Gasper Fitzgerald, author of ADOPTION: An Open, Semi-Open or Closed Practice?

Rating:
Summary: No such thing as adoption without tears
Review: The Open Adoption Book is A Guide to Adoption Without Tears. I want to live on the planet Dr. Rappaport resides on and so do the tens of thousands of women in the United States who surrender babies every year for adoption. The tears never stop, whatever adoption practice the children were placed under. Read Merry Bloch Jones, Birthmothers and you'll see "the amputation of the heart." Rappaport describes open adoption as though it were a rose garden in which "...close relationships between the adoptive parents and birthparents become almost casual or routine, just as they would be in a biological family. The sense of normalcy is striking" (p. 120). Yes, of course, this may be the case with some open adoption arrangements, but Dr. Rappaport writes that "most open adoption families" consider the presence of the birthparent(s) "just a normal and routine part of their everyday lives." We do not have longitudinal studies that support this view, and common sense tells us that it cannot be true of most open adoption arrangements. We learn in a see-saw of research papers that many birthmothers report that if they had to do it over again they would not have chosen adoption but raised the children themselves. Some would even have chosen abortion over adoption. Mothers relinquishing a child for adoption often tend toward more grief symptoms, especially if the adoption is an open one, than parents who had lost a child to death. Studies show that many mothers using open adoption often feel more socially isolated, express more difficulty with normal everyday life, feel more despair, and express more dependency than their counterparts using confidential adoptions.
Dr. Rappaport's book was published in 1992, but meanwhile we do have more data available. We learn from the largest longitudinal study (720 individuals) conducted by Harold D. Grotevant and Ruth G. McRoy on the full range of adoptive openness, (Openness in Adoption, Exploring Family Connections. Sage 1998): "The clearest policy implication of our work is that no single type of adoption is best for everyone." These authors warn that the long-term impact of openness for all parties in the adoptive kinship network is not known and longitudinal research is necessary to answer this question. Most importantly, the long-term impact of openness on the children is as yet unknown. In fully disclosed open adoption, the child is continually reminded that she has two mothers. This "insistence of differences" is a vulnerability in open-adoption families which professionals and laypersons are concerned about. David H. Kirk's Adoptive Kinship Theory predicts that openness in adoption imposes strains on all parties in the adoption triad as a result of role ambiguity. In their study Openness in Adoption, New Practices, New Issues, (Praeger, 1988) McRoy, Grotevant and White suggest that "The child may be more likely to feel that he is 'matched' with his adoptive parents, if he or she is not constantly reminded of the contrast between birthparents and adoptive parents." The authors suggest that Semi-open adoptions (no personal contact between birthmothers and adoptive parents but non-identifying letters through the agency) tend to minimize problems regarding role expectations of adoptive parents and birthparents.
Gisela Gasper Fitzgerald, author of ADOPTION: An Open, Semi-Open or Closed Practice?