Recently while waiting at the hair salon, I was reading Glamour Magazine and read about an interesting blog called Storked written by a Glamour journalist. The blurb in the magazine interested me enough for me to write it down and come home and look it up later.

The blog is written by Christine Coppa. a twenty six year old single woman who was living it up in New York City, dedicated to her dream job at Glamour Magazine when she unexpectedly becomes pregnant. I’ve been reading through... more

I ran across some interesting statistics on the number of unplanned pregnancies in the United States. The good news is that the number of teen pregnancies are down. According to Bill Albert, the director of the National Campaign to prevent teen pregnancy the rate of unplanned pregnancies fell 36 percent, which is the lowest it has been in a long time.

While the number of teen pregnancies in on the decline, the number of unplanned pregnancies among young women is not. The definition of unplanned (they used unwanted but I don’t like that description) pregnancies... more

A great resource for those of you who may be experiencing high risk pregnancies is the website and non profit organization, Sidelines. While Sidelines is not adoption or unplanned pregnancy specific it is high risk pregnancy specific.

Sidelines is a national non profit organization that provides support for expectant mothers who are experiencing high risk pregnancies for one reason or another. Sidelines was founded by 2 women, Laura Maurer and Candice Hurley in July of 1991 and started out as small chapters spread... more

There are a lot of laws involving adoption. While you may not be a legal expert, you can still read up a little bit on the adoption laws in order to be prepared for what is up coming as well as to protect yourself. There are no federally mandated adoption laws. The laws differ from state to state.

There are laws that dictate when you can sign papers terminating your parental rights. Some states require you to wait a certain amount of time after the birth of your baby before you can sign relinquishment papers. For example, in Arizona you can not sign until... more

I don’t like extreme points of view.

I don’t like self-published books.

And, as a writing snob, I don’t like sentences that cause me to think, “Where was the editor?”

Despite all of these things, I do like Mirah Riben’s new book, The Stork Market: America’s Multi-Billion Dollar Unregulated Adoption Industry.

That’s because I view it as a piece of dedicated, tenacious reporting, collecting many disparate facts into one unified whole. By recounting the many ways that the big... more

I’m a big fan of the medical drama, Grey’s Anatomy which airs Thursday nights on ABC.

I didn’t see tonight’s story line coming. The show is mainly about a group of residents who work together at a hospital in Seattle. One of the residents is a young woman named Isobel, commonly referred to as Izzy (played by Katherine Heigl). In tonight’s episode, a couple comes up to Izzy at the desk and starts saying something abut their daughter who has cancer and needs a bone marrow transplant. Izzy starts giving them directions to Pediatrics when they tell her that their daughter looks just like her. She looks confused for a moment... more

Now that you have a type of adoption in mind, you can begin to search for an agency if that is the route you choose.

Some tips in looking for an agency:

If you want an open adoption, you need to make sure that the agency handles open adoptions. Some agencies may claim to and in reality it is more of a semi open adoption. If you get a bad vibe from one agency or they don’t seem to offer exactly what you are looking for then try another agency! Begin by looking up adoption agencies in the local yellow... more

“Being a mother is a noble status, right? So why does it change when you put ‘unwed' or ‘welfare' in front of it?” ~ Gloria Steinem

In this post we will explore some resources and support sites that will help you with some of the issues mentioned in the previous posts. I haven’t personally used many of the resources and support sites listed below so I can not personally attest to them. However, they do look like they provide helpful and useful information. I am assuming that some people in unplanned pregnancies will... more

Adoption Terms and Lingo Part 1 Part 2 Home Studies Part 3 Relinquishment

You may be noticing a lot of “titles” in your research. Birthmother, First mother, Lifemother, Natural Mother, Biological Mother – What do they all mean? Why are their so many different titles? It can be a little confusing at first.

As mentioned in Part... more

Part 1

In your research on adoption, you probably have seen the words “home study approved” in various places. You may (like me before I entered the adoption world) wondering what the heck a home study is and what it entails.

The purpose of a home study is to educate and prepare the adoptive family for adoption, to gather information on the family, and to evaluate the fitness and readiness of a prospective couple to bring a child into their home and life.

A... more