Birth Parent Gift Idea: Matching Quilts

By Brittany M. of Que & Brittany's Adoption Journal

Ever since Que and I began our adoption journey, we had been hearing about birth parent gifts. One that stuck out to me is the quilt idea!

The adoptive couple makes two matching quilts: one for the baby and one for the birth mom. On Labor Day weekend, my in-laws and I finished them, and then on the 19th, we presented our birth mom with her quilt at our baby shower. We chose a jungle/safari theme because she likes elephants. She really loved it! Here are some pictures of the quilt as we made it:

Below is a close-up of the quilt (you can see the back & front):

Open Adoption: Ron and Jessica

Posted by Brittany of Que & Brittany's Adoption Journal

Open Adoption: A Marriage of Families

by Jessica

If you asked me two years ago if I thought I'd ever invite our baby's birthmother over to our house, I probably would have told you, "Um, I don't think so."

Well, we've had a long time to think about openness. We've met a lot of people with very open adoptions and our hearts have softened toward openness 100%.

Now that we have little ZJ, and we've met his wonderful birthmother and her family, there is no way I could tell them, "Thanks for the baby" and never see them again.

I like to think of our adoption like a marriage; a marriage of our families. We won't see each other all the time, but we do want to keep contact and we want to get together once in a while. Sure it takes effort, but everything worth while in this world takes effort. And there are many rewards for us, too.

Here's what ZJs's birthmother wrote to us in a card this week:

"Ron & Jessica,
I just wanted to say thank you for inviting me and my family for dinner! I am so lucky to have found people like you to take care of and be parents to ZJ. I truly believe God played a part in it and I thank Him for that."

*****

~If you are an adoptive parent, a birth parent or are adopted, have an open adoption and would like to contribute to a future post, please email me at queandbrittany@yahoo.com.

Why You Need to Promote Adoption

Posted by Brittany M. of Que & Brittany's Adoption Journal

The following interesting information is from an article called New Pregnancy Counseling & Adoption Services Website from LDS Media Talk.com which talks about the new ItsAboutLove.org site run by LDS Family Services. Here are a few of the statistics listed:

There were...

1.21 million abortions in 2005 (single women: 83% of all abortions)

1.6 million nonmarital births in 2006 (38.5% of all births)


Within 3 years after birth, 15% of dating parents marry; 21% of cohabitating parents marry


Only 1.6% are placed for adoption


Societal values overwhelmingly encourage unwed parents to choose single parenthood or abortion. Many programs, such as Planned Parenthood, exist to promote these values. With LDS Family Services, the Church has a program to counteract these values and to enable informed consideration of other options.

In 2005, nearly 37 % of all births were to single mothers. This resulted in over 1.5 million children being born to an unmarried mother.

In 2005 roughly 350,000 children were born to unmarried teen mothers. On the other hand, over 1 million children were born to single mothers ages 20 and over (23% vs. 77%). In other words, in the USA, non-marital births are not just a teen problem, and in fact, the age structure of unwed mothers has been getting older for several decades.

Not only are more single women getting pregnant, pregnant single women are becoming more interested in keeping their babies. Therefore, abortion rates are down and adoption rates are declining.

**************
Were you shocked to learn that only about 1% of crisis pregnancies end with an adoption?

Especially if you yourself are hoping to adopt, be proactive and do something to change that statistic by promoting adoption!

(You would be surprised at how many Latter-day Saints are uninformed about the Church's stance on open adoption and adoption itself.)

A good way to do this is to have an LDS Family Services representative come to your ward or branch and do a 5th Sunday Presentation on adoption. (I bet they would do a presentation for a combined Young Women/Young Men's or Singles Ward activity as well.)

We had them come to our ward last November for a 5th Sunday Presentation and it was wonderful! Call 1-800-537-2229 to schedule a day for them to come to your area. (Or contact me and I will set it up for you.)