Adoption is not easy at all and this is coming from an adoption social worker dealing with domestic newborns, international and foster care. I once had to meet an adoptive couple in the back of a Wendy’s restaurant because the birth mom decided after 24 hours to take the baby back. She had relentless pressure from her grandmother and other family members to keep him although they weren’t really offering to help. So the crying couple handed him back to me and I sat in a Wendy’s booth with a three day old infant waiting for a birth mom who had no meaningful income or job prospects and birth dad already skipped town. No government entity should dictate anything related to family planning. Adoption will always involve loss and pain and it may surprise people but infants are not blank slates you get to form.

Elaine Gilmartin
Elaine Gilmartin

Written by Elaine Gilmartin

A therapist by profession, a runner by passion, a writer by necessity.

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