I’ve written about entrustment ceremonies in the blogs before, but just to refresh your mind, I’ll re-define them.

An entrustment ceremony is an adoption ritual that acts as a symbolic gesture of the transferring of the parental role from the birthmother to the adoptive parents.

Entrustment Ceremonies are becoming more common in the adoption community as more people find out about them. Recently entrustment ceremonies have been in the news and are getting a little publicity so hopefully more people will learn about them and consider partaking in one.

In the May/June issue of Adoptive Families magazine there is an article written by Carrie Howard about Adoption Rituals and Traditions. The article includes a pretty lengthy paragraph on entrustment ceremonies including a few quotes from yours truly. Carrie discusses various things that can go on at entrustment ceremonies such as reading of poetry, music, and reading of letters from the birthmother to her child and the adoptive parents to the birthmother and child.

The tale of a particular entrustment ceremony recently made the news in The Register Guard out of Eugene, Oregon. This article shares the story of a young mother of two boys, Amada. She was parenting her two boys when she found herself in an unplanned pregnancy pregnant with not one baby but two. Amanda realized that open adoption would be her best option.

Amanda made an open adoption plan with Clete and Jennifer Mitchell. Amanda planned an entrustment ceremony. Ten days after the birth of the twins, Amanda, Jennifer, Clete, their children, and their families gathered in the chapel at Sacred Heart Medical Center as hospital chaplain LJ Comeau presided over the ceremony. The article shares details and specifics of their entrustment ceremony, the most amazing part in my opinion, being that Amanda composed, sang, and played on her guitar a special song, written for her twin babies.

If you are interested in more information on entrustment ceremonies, check out the links below.

Entrustment Ceremonies
Entrustment Ceremony Poems
Insight Open Adoption and Resources Entrustment Ceremony Page
Entrustment Ceremony Page