Adoption Concept Map 2nd Draft

Here is the Adoption Concept Map draft 2!
A BIG thank you to all of the commentors on this blog, from AAAFC and IAA for contributing on the last draft to this draft
I realize that its hard to see up there because there is really SO MUCH on it ( which seems to only be the tip of the iceberg as I dive deeper into this project of mine. So I have broken it down into categories, and I’ll be putting images of the specific categories below for closer investigation to get better feedback and insight from the oh so valuble people in the adoption web online.

I think that the age of adoption is important for obvious reasons. Did they have bonding time outside uterus with mother. Less “primal wound”. Multiple adoptions is REALLY important, moving children around from home to home isn’t good for their attachment development. Supporting this section with research in the future is a goal of mine. I hope to be able to link all of these sections to research, and the current up to date standards and practices for people to learn from and help reform etc.

Ethnicity is SO important in adoption, cultural, racial and religious factors really weight into adopting children from those different than the adoptive families. I’m hoping to get insight from alot of people involved in international adoptions. Its really important to honor where and who the child is and is coming from in order for them to honor themselves and I plan on backing this, as every section up with references to the significance in honoring differences and similarites in adoptees and their adoptive families and natural families and the impact it has on the adoptee.

I can’t decide if I should put this on in the ethncity of the adoptee or keep it in its own separate category. Eventually I’d like to add all countries, all laws surrounding adoptions etc. but that could literally be months before I finish it, but…nevertheless would be informative and help pinpoint where reform needs to happen and how it effects adoptees and our rights and lives.

I think special needs is a HUGE area that needs more reform and insight. From not informing surrendering parents of the “special needs” caused by surrendering and separation of child, to not informing adoptive parents to the special needs of the potential adoptee so that he/she can be treated and cared for appropriately, to labeling children special needs simply because they’re a certain race.

Level of openess in communication in household is something I really DON’T know much about. I can guess and speculate, but I was raised in a house that probably talked about adoption maybe…. 3 or 4 times until I searched when I was 21. It wasn’t taboo, but just wasn’t discussed, I FEEL like openess would have really helped, so this is an area I DEFINATLY want to add onto and help grow and evolve to show the benefits for the adoptee. Its going to take alot of reading, but I have my first book ordered: “Psychological Issues in Adoption: Research and Practice” by David Brodzinsky so hopefully it will enlighten me in this area which common sense tells me is better than holding it all in for a lifetime.

Relinquishment is HUGE. HUGE. I know more about this than other areas of adoption, but not as much as I’d like so I’m hoping that parents who have been forced into relinquishment, coerced into it, or chose it can give me more feedback and insight onto this section.

Methods for adopting is also a HUGE factor that plays alot into the development of the adoptee. I think that if education could be done in this department as well as all of the others maybe the focus could be re-directed back onto the adoptee if reform was given in the “looking into adoption” department. I don’t know much about this section as well and am hoping for insight from parents who have adopted, to school me on the ins and outs of crucial part of adoption.

For good reasons this is in here, access to information, contact, genetic mirroring, answers from family not a piece of paper speculating or possibly falsifying information is crucial to the sense of wholeness adoptess deserve to feel and search for.

This is huge for adoption and its umbrella, huge for the adoptees development, parents separated by adoption, and adopting parents. This is here for obvious reasons.

For good reasons this is in here, access to information for the adoptee is crucial and in my opinion lack of it is a violation of the adoptees rights. I will eventually back this section up with research that I have already on my computer and hopefully more will pop up in the meantime. Any insight here is welcome!

so this is it peeps! The Adoption Concept Map draft 2. Hopefully after a few more drafts a few months down the road it will be the blueprint for reform that I am so eager to have and start on my reform quest to heal the world of adoption injustice! We’ve been working on this now for a month and its growing quite beautifully. It certainly shows how adoption isn’t just “black and white” there is a heap load into it. Insight into all categories is welcome, if there isn’t a category here that you think should be please speak up, with all or any ideas you have about this!!

On the next map I’d like to add in countries and their specific laws effecting adoptions, surrenders, parental rights, adoptees rights etc. If you think ANYTHING is left out please speak up and let me know. I’m also working on an adoptee centered one. Where the adoptee is in the middle and everything branches out from the adoptee, that ones cool.

And I have another that includes the “machine” and agencies , facilitators, and lawyers, unsure if I should just combine them all or not at this point. But…to get the big picture, i guess you’d have to “see” everything. So in the end, i feel that I will put them all together.

Insight appreciated!