Differences Between an Open Adoption and a Closed Adoption

An adoption arrangement has a lifetime impact on your relationship with your child. Most important in open adoption or closed adoption is deciding what will have the best effect on your children’s lives.

Many adopted children seek contact with their birth parents as adults. Adoption records in Oklahoma can unseal at age 18.

Oklahoma adoptive parents can choose between open and closed adoption. Although the technical definition of an open adoption simply means everyone involved knows the names of everyone, open adoption is most commonly used in everyday language to mean there will be the possibility of intentional contact between the biological and adoptive parents. A closed adoption is simply that: Closed.

Whether you are in an open or closed adoption agreement, some things can get complicated – an adoption attorney in OKC Lisa R. Howard can help you.

Open Adoption Oklahoma

Open and semi-open adoptions permit contact between families. This can help families looking to make sure their children are informed about their origins. Birth parents may want privacy after adoption. If so, open adoption may not be suitable for them. Each adoption is unique, and specially tailored to meet the needs of each family.

Closed Adoption Oklahoma

Closed adoption is the older form of adoption. After closed adoption, there is no contact. No identifying information is shared with the adoptive family; thus, all adoption records are sealed.

Differences Between Open and Closed Adoption

Closed adoptions are far less common now than they were in the past. There are many reasons for this.

Many stigmas that originally made closed adoptions more desirable have been alleviated. Controversies around the adoption of children from other countries have stained closed adoption.

Parents now are raising children who, in the past, would have been put up for adoption shortly after birth. The success stories of these families have encouraged others to raise their children in single-parent and blended families.

Closed adoptions differ from open and semi-open adoptions because the parents have no contact. In a closed adoption, the birth and adoptive parents are fully anonymous to each other, with no family or identifying information changing hands.

Yet, both open and closed adoptions create valid families. Both have times that they are the right choice for families.

Adoption is a situation that requires understanding by both the adoptive and biological parents.

Deciding Between Open and Closed Adoption?

Open and closed adoption are both choices for an adoptive family with benefits and drawbacks. These can be both for the biological and adoptive parents, and for their children. If you are looking at adoption Oklahoma, an adoption attorney Oklahoma can help answer your questions.

You want to choose what’s best for your child, whether you are the birth parent or the adoptive parent. No matter what part of the process of adopting a baby you are in, you will have questions and concerns.

We can help you create certainty in the world around adoption. We hope to be your advocate in choosing between an open and closed adoption.

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