Adoption

I found Thursday's lecture on adoption very interesting. Towards the end of the lecture we talked about how all of the theories could be related or applied to an adopted child. A co-worker of mine has two adopted children. He and his wife chose to adopt locally and have open adoptions. Their situation made me think about their children's microsystem. For most children they will have their family, school, etc. For his children their birth parents are included in that microsystem. I am sure that this definately has an impact on their family's functioning. For example his daughter's birth mother attends all of her big milestone events like birthdays. When I first met this family I found it to be awkward seeing the mom and birth-mom interact. However, it is just a part of how they function. I am interested to see how an open adoption will impact these children over the years. For children with closed adoptions they may desire to have contact with their parents and be curious about the process. For my co-workers children their biological parents are a very close part of their lives. I wonder what questions they will have for their parents and birth parents when they are older.