They Were Nervous About Open Adoption. Now They Can’t Imagine It Any Other Way.

An Open Adoption Story: What It Really Looks Like

Sarah and Devin came to adoption the way a lot of families do: through a door they didn’t plan to open.

Sarah has chronic kidney disease. Her physician was clear – pregnancy carried serious risks for her, and for any child she might carry. When she and Devin sat down to talk about it, the conversation was shorter than you might expect. They didn’t need a biological child to be a family. Adoption was where their hearts landed.

They found Adoption & Beyond through a consultant recommendation. From the first contact, something felt different.

“From the beginning, Adoption & Beyond was just so organized,” Sarah said. “Going into territory we had no idea about, that made it easy.” Devin agreed: “Supportive. Always open for questions. Always there.”

“A lot of people keep telling us adoptions don’t normally go like this. But we didn’t give up hope.”

Their match came relatively quickly. Their son Eli’s birth mother was, in their words, fantastic. She still saw Eli regularly – Sarah and her would meet up monthly or every other month. Her son had brought Eli Christmas gifts. She’s become, as simply as possible, family.

They’d had doubts about open adoption going in. Most families do. Social media tends to amplify the hard stories, the contested ones, the ones that ended in grief or conflict. What you don’t see as often is what Sarah and Devin found.

“I wish we would’ve known that open adoption is not as scary as it seems,” Sarah said. “There are a lot of positives, but you’re not seeing that on social media. From what we’ve experienced, it’s just been a very beautiful thing.”

Devin offered the last word for any family still on the fence: “Stay positive. Don’t give up. Don’t quickly dismiss open adoption, because that could actually turn out to be a good thing.” For them, it turned out to be one of the best parts of the whole journey.