After searching for more than a decade, I found my daughter’s birthmother. My daughter met her birthmother for the first time shortly after her twelfth birthday. Her birthmother is a kind, wonderful woman, who has allowed us to be part of her life in ways I never would have dreamed. She has provided my daughter/her birth daughter with the gift of knowing that she her adoption was truly done out of love.

This search has transformed all our lives, but mine more than anyone’s. This search made me increasingly committed to open adoption and to spreading the message of why it is important. As a result, almost four years ago I switched careers so I could run the Independent Adoption Center, a pioneer in open adoption. Fortunately, the families at the IAC never have to search for their child’s birth parents. They know who they are because the birth parents chose them to parent their child. Each child will grow up knowing that their adoption was done out of love because both their adoptive and birth parents will tell them so. This love is the legacy of open adoption.