Recommended Resources for Navigating Birth Family Connections
Family and Permanency Specialist, Stacy Latham, has supported countless families through the adoption process and is a wealth of information about many topics related to adoption. This month, Stacy is sharing some resources that she is finding helpful on the topic of navigating birth family connections.
Birth family connections are extremely important for adopted children - but often extremely challenging for adoptive parents. Working with an adoption professional like Stacy, whether through finalization or child preparation (before adoption) or post permanency services (after adoption) can be incredibly helpful for families. Through non-judgmental listening and sharing from her years of experience, Stacy (and our other permanency team members) can help families detangle the complexities of their feelings around these topics and move forward in a way that is healthy for everyone involved.
Stacy shares, "I recently discovered Lori Holden when searching for some resources for a family that is struggling with birth family connections. Holden wrote The Open Hearted Way to Open Adoption and Adoption Unfiltered, and has several worthwhile podcasts. Her website is https://lavenderluz.com.
"Another great podcast channel I frequently visit is Creating a Family led by adoption expert Dawn Davenport. In fact, there is one episode on Creating a Family in which Lori Holden and her colleagues (who represent all aspects of the adoption triad) are interviewed. The episode is called What You Need to Know About Open Adoption."
Did you know that all families in Pennsylvania with adopted children under the age of 18 (regardless of where/how they were adopted) are eligible for post-permanency services through the Statewide Adoption and Permanency Network (SWAN)? If you live within our service area, The Salvation Army Children's Services can provide these services to your family as a SWAN affiliate. All you need to do is call SWAN to request services, and let them know that you are interested in working with The Salvation Army.
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