A room with a door....

Recently in my Communications 1010 class we had to give an oral presentation. The professor allowed us to speak on a topic that we love, are passionate about and are maybe an expert on. Now while I'm not saying I'm an expert on my chosen topic, I did feel confident enough in my knowledge of it to speak. What's that you ask? What was my chosen topic? Why thanks for asking! I chose to speak on something I am extremely passionate about. That is open adoption. I shared a few statistics about adoption and got an audible gasp when I told my audience that less than 1% of unwed expectant mothers choose adoption. They couldn't beleive the number was so low. But that wasn't the point of my presentation. The point was to talk about the benefits of open adoption for those amazing parents who choose adoption. But I had to explain what open adoption was befor discussing the benefits. So that brings me to the purpose of this post.

I used an analogy to describe adoption. I likened adoption to a room with a door. The adoptive family and the child who has been placed are on the inside of the room. The birthfamilies are on the outside. In a closed adoption, the door to the room is closed. You as a birthmom can't see in, and likewise the adoptive family can't see out. There is no contact. The door is completely closed. In a semi-open adoption the door to the room is partially open. As a birthparent you are able to see part of what is going on in the room. You receive letters and pictures, quite often through a third party, but even though you can see part of the room, you don't see all of the room. In an open adoption, the door to the room is all the way open. As a birthparent you can stand in the doorway and see the entire room. You get letters, pictures, emails, phone calls, visits. Often times you are even invited into the room to share in the activities going on inside.

So what do you think? Fair analogy? Did I hit the mark or miss it completely? In a future post I will share what I found to be the benefits for an open adoption. For now, I'm going to bed. I have 2 reviews for finals in the morning. Finals are next week and than 3 weeks till next semester. Looking forward to the break!