• I remember sitting there, looking over the faces of people. I was there to explain something, something that no one in the room knew more about then me. Open Adoption is something I can imagine being something very scary for people to think about, but also something I can recall being afraid I would go without. I remember the fear of not knowing where I was going to go and if I would ever see those I cared for again.
    So let me back up a little bit and explain who I am and why I was there. I was about to turn seventeen and had been adopted almost four years ago. Though I had been adopted I still have built and maintained relationships with the people that is my family by blood, and family that is my family because it is nearly impossible to think of them in any other way. I was at an adoption class to explain things about Open Adoption. I hoped to make at least one family would open there arms and adopt not only one child into their family, but also the family they had already with them.
    I started off by saying "Imagine, everyone you know, your family, your friends" I looked around into those curious faces and then continued. "How about your home? The place that you have lived for ever, the school you had grown up in?" I could picture all of these things easily, "Now you have already lost someone you are close to. A parent. For what ever reason you will never see them again" I closed my eyes, I could remember the pain of that, how hard it had been. There are still times when it hurts. The next thing I said had been my biggest fear for a long time. "Now imagine being told that you would not be allowed to see anyone and everything you have just thought of, ever again"
    That was a fear that was all to real for me. I remember one night going down to talk to the women who had been my adoptive aunt for years. I had been in and out of foster care for years and she had been my foster mother. I told her how afraid I was, that I was scared that I would have to leave everything behind. I took comfort when she said she would never let it happen.
    I looked up at the room of people; every person at the four long tables was quite. I saw a tear or two in people's eyes. At that point I knew that I had done what I had wanted to do, I had gotten them to walk in the shoes of another person. I made them think that just because the child they were to adopt needed a home and a family that they are able to turn away from things they had known all their lives.
    An adopted child does not need to walk away; in fact it would hurt them more if they did. I can tell you if someone had told me I would never see my family, the family I had left, again I would have refused. I would have fought to the bitter end, because, though in some those people were not related to me in blood, they where my family and they always will be.
    Do not get me wrong about any of this. I love the family that adopted me. I just hope that what I said at that class has opened up someone's eyes. I hope when they discuss Open Adoption with the social workers that they will be more open and willing to accept the idea now that they have walked in my shoes. I hope that I have made it so one other persons fear of what would happen to them be needless. I plan to go on speaking about Open Adoption because it is my way of reaching out to children who may not know what to expect, and may feel they are with out a voice.