BDP21

Welcome baby Cecilia! Congratulations to Kristy & Rob! We are celebrating with all your parents tonight as they welcome you into this world together!

Welcome baby Ariel! I've been anxiously awaiting this news all day! Congratulations, Grace and Nathan! May Ariel and all her parents know how loved they are!

We were all thinking the same thing about the lack of contact. I do think it was a very well written piece and helps to break down so many of the stereotypes we all hear.

Congratulations, Frannie, Mark, and Meagan! Can't wait to see a picture of the beautiful boy all of you love so much!!!

Oh, Tara, I am so sorry you had to go through that and hope that you will see your daughter again. I totally agree with Jicelyn - money should not be a factor and that agency never should have said anything to you about the waiting parents situation! As others have said, I'm do glad you found an ethical agency and Nicole, Raj, and Rocco. I am lucky enough to live in the same general area and love to see Sky and this side of her family. She and our Joseph are only two days apart so they had fun together when we met up. So thankful for the openness you now have!

Congrats Andrius & Gaby!! Welcome baby Xavier!!

I couldn't agree more with the recommendations posted - read and get involved in the forum (and make sure you read the topics from long ago, too - there are a lot of lessons to be learned!) and connect with others who have travelled this road and those who are travelling it with you. I am so thankful for those that went before me and were there for me/us on our journey (especially both of "my" Melissas ) and also those who were going through it at the same time sharing many of the same emotions. Friends of ours that started their journey at the same time as us at our first agency have become great friends and we are so glad we have each other.

Congratulations, Kim & Gip! Welcome to baby Irie! Prayers for all who love this sweet baby girl!

I think the letter came fairly quickly if I remember correctly. We basically re-sent everything we had already given them with a little more detail about each expense we had claimed. There will be a number to call included and I would suggest calling them before you send everything back in to see if at least that person on the line believes you are missing anything. They basically just told us to send everything in again and it worked but I'm glad we called first so we didn't have to do 2 or 3 rounds of back and forth.

Leah - We did it all on our own. I don't know if we would have gotten it turned around any faster had we used a CPA but I think our timeline was fairly typical. I hope you are well on your way to getting it all back!

We had the same thing happen, Leah. We filed in March. We got everything but the adoption tax credit amount back first - a few weeks later. We got a letter requesting more information which we immediately sent in and then eventually got the full amount back in July, I think it was. It might have been August. Melissa - if you need to know what all we sent in, just let me know and I'll dig it up. I hope you will get your full refund SOON!

Same thing happened with GG, as soon as she saw him, there was no going back! She came to visit us with Grandma M this last time we were down as well and it was so wonderful to just see the look in her eyes

What a wonderful birthday present! I love all the pictures! I especially love the 4 generations picture! I so hope we'll be able to have that same picture for Joseph one day now that his GG (great grandma) is involved. Your family is just beautiful

Happy Birthday, Mari! I hope you have a wonderful day!

Looking forward to reading more of your story, Mari! I have loved each post - you share so beautifully!

Mandi - those are great questions. I could definitely see that being the case. I also wonder if maybe those that have those values already are attracted to open adoption in part because they/we don't see birthparents as "other" or "stranger" but as an important part of their child's family and community?

I agree with Melissa, too. Open adoption to me is family. Open adoption gives our son (and us) a bigger family and more people that love him. It means he gets to know all sides of his family and never question how much he is loved by each side. He gets to see who he looks like and where he gets his talents from. He gets to know his grandmas and his sisters. He gets to see his first family embrace all of us as family and us as his parents so he doesn't have to wonder if this is really what they thought was best. None of this would be possible without open adoption. Each open adoption relationship will be different, just as each other kind of relationship is different, but I think every open adoption will allow the child/ren to benefit from knowing all sides of their family.

Welcome to the world, Riley! You are blessed to have many people who love you! Congratulations to all of the proud parents!

I'm so sorry for your and Lauranda's loss. Losing a pet can be so hard.

Paperwork is such fun, huh? We got another stack of it tonight for our new Virginia homestudy. I don't mind going through the process but it is tiring to have to do the same thing twice for the same adoption. Two physical forms, two employment forms, two applications, two versions of basically the same questions... It's just timeconsuming when we're pressed for time to begin with!