for Adoptive Families | adoptionsavvy

Adoptive Families

Adoptive Families come in all shapes, sizes, colors, & compositions! Adoptive Parents must be equipped to parent according to their adopted child's individual needs and in the context of their particular family. Many adopted children share similar struggles with issues like:

Identity & Sense of Self
Need for Control
Ambiguous Grief & Loss
Abandonment & Rejection
Family Loyalty Binds
Birthday Ambivalence
Need for Belonging
Decision Making Difficulties
Friends & Relationships

Transracial & International Adoptees have additionally complex issues to face like culture loss and racial identity confusion.

Children Adopted from Foster Care have to cope with added issues like multiple breaks in attachment and need to heal before bonding with new caregivers. This may include recovery from or difficulties with:

Domestic Violence
Sexual Abuse
Extreme Neglect
Parental Mental Illness
Parental Drug Addiction
Fetal Alcohol Syndrome
Developmental Delays
Sensory Issues

Other complexities in the Adoptive Home may complicate the healing process such as:

Foster Care of other children
Adoptive Siblings
Single Adoptive Parent
LGBTQ Adoptive Parents
Death of Adoptive Parent (or Sibling)
Divorce of Adoptive Parents

Open Adoption Adoptees (those with some degree of access to Birth Families) must sometimes navigate very tricky family dynamics, similar to the complexity of family entanglements faced by Relative Kin Adoptees.

Closed Adoption Adoptees (those with closed records and no access to Birth Families or information) face great challenges in overcoming the shame of secrecy, piecing together their heritage and may have difficult decisions to make about search & reunion. These issues can extend to Second Generation Adoptees, too, (the children of Adoptees) also cut off from their roots.

Adoptees in Pre & Post Reunion can become completely overwhelmed by unexpected feelings that may surface personally or in their bio relative(s) and are subject to "secondary rejection" (rejection by a Birth Parent in reunion), which can be devastating.