Education can be life-changing. Good education isn’t just the sharing of information. It has the power to expand our perspectives, clarify our intentions, build and model empathy, and give us the wisdom to know how to heal, help, and encourage.
This has been an area of growth for us over the past few months. As you may know, we are the expectant mom/family’s team. That is our job. But part of being good mom-advocates and child-advocates means ensuring the prospective adoptive parents who each client has asked to walk alongside her are well-equipped to support her and her child long-term. While home studies should include education, there is only so much someone can teach prospective adoptive parents while visiting their home for a few hours. We believe this is an area that has historically been lacking in the adoption space and we are working diligently to meet these needs.
In addition to using great content that is widely applicable, we have really enjoyed providing educational pieces that are specifically relevant to the families we serve, including resources written by adoptees and birth moms! We are excited to keep growing in this area and are always on the search for the best resources for adoptive parents.
Just as Ashley Mitchell (Big Tough Girl) has said, adoption is for life. That means adoptees, birth families, and adoptive parents need support for life. Many times, for the adoptive parents especially, that support comes in the form of education. The ability and need to keep learning never ends. We want the beginning of this process to reflect the same level of commitment from prospective adoptive parents that the rest of adoption will require, too, if it is to be done well.