If you’ve heard the radio ads around Texas about modern adoption plans, you may be wondering: what has really changed about adoption– and when, and how?
It seems that the “modern adoption plan” pitch is an effort to rebrand adoption by repackaging the same benefits open adoption has offered over the past 30 years or more. Everyone of child-bearing age has been alive during the time that placing parents have gotten to choose their baby’s adoptive parents. And it’s (hopefully) been years since the old closed adoption agencies tried telling birthparents they “weren’t allowed” to be awake for the birth or to meet the adoptive family or to keep in touch after placement. Knowing where and how your child is growing up is just part of being a good parent– whether you have custody or not.
Since 1994, Abrazo has been practicing fully-open adoptions– what the adoption ads on the radio now call “modern adoption plans.” That means that when you come to Abrazo to talk about choosing adoption for your baby, you don’t have to move into some maternity home to be hidden away from public view. Our staff won’t tell you what choices are best for you and your baby. You don’t need to be absolutely certain that adoption is going to be your final decision (or pretend it is, if you’re unsure) just to get services. We know all plans are subject to change, and we want the parents who do place here to think this through fully.
How Modern Adoption Plans Work at Abrazo
At Abrazo, making a modern adoption plan means it’s okay (and even encouraged) to be considering all your options. We provide you with nonbiased options counseling, with medical care and/or a place to stay and food and clothing, if you need it. Our job is to provide you with all the support you need to make whatever choices you feel are best, for you and your baby, toddler or child.
When you work with our agency, we treat you with respect– and our waiting families will, too. They don’t hide their last names or keep their addresses from the very people who are going to matter most in their lives. If you want to choose an adoptive couple before the birth and get to really know them first, that’s your choice! And if you prefer to wait to match until after the birth to be certain if adoption is right for you, that’s your option, also.
In most of our placements, placing parents and adopting parents choose to enjoy direct contact before, during and after the adoption. Placing parents spend as much time with their child as they wish prior to placement, participate in choosing the baby’s name, and enjoy visits with their child after placement, too. Birthparents can opt for more privacy, if they wish. Yet most find that it gives them peace of mind to know firsthand how their child is doing. Our adoptive couples truly treasure their child’s first parents. And the adoptees grow up happier and healthier, too, because they know who, where and how their birthfamilies are.
Basically, what savvy marketers are now calling “modern adoption plans” is really just adoption without secrets, lies or shame… exactly the same adoption values Abrazo has always promoted.
So What’s Behind The Modern Adoption Plan campaign?
You may be wondering: if “modern adoption plans” are the same thing Abrazo’s been doing for nearly three decades. why are they spinning this like it’s something new? And who’s behind this well-funded public relations campaign? Adoption numbers have fallen dramatically, so nonprofit agencies are hurting. Coupled with abortion law restrictions and Texas’ broken child welfare system, there’s reason for concern. Yet if you visit the website that’s pitched in those radio ads, you’ll find some very familiar names. (Like a DFW adoption agency with a more than $24 million endowment fund, its pro-adoption advocacy offshoot, and a national church-related agency, plus plenty of faith-based crisis pregnancy centers.)
Private, nonprofit adoption agencies like Abrazo don’t have that kind of spare change, of course. Yes, adoption is better today than it ever was, Yet the only cost-free means we have of getting the word out is through people like you. When you share blogs like this, post positive reviews of our services and tell others about your adoption experiences, you help pay it forward, and we appreciate that more than you know.
Are you seeking a modern adoption plan put together by experienced adoption professionals who truly care about you and your child, who have been doing fully-honest and open adoptions since long before the State of Texas started selling them on the radio? Give Abrazo a call or contact us here. At Abrazo, adoption is way more than just a marketable abortion alternative here– and always has been.
