Privacy Matters in Adoption

There was a great article posted on Rainbowkids this week that goes into a lot of details about the importance of an adopted child's privacy when it comes to their history and background and how we as adoptive parents need to be mindful of what information we share and when we share it with our child as often times, the child might not remember their history (depending on their age) and it can be very hurtful to find out details of their history from a family member or friend. Having just recieved our Referral, this article is very timely for us given that we now have a document that is about 20 pages in length with a lot of possible information that is really not ours to share, and are in the midst of fielding questions from friends and family that we might not be able to answer to protect our daughter' privacy. I hope you take the time to read it. Here is the link

http://www.rainbowkids.com/ArticleDetails.aspx?id=755

and an excerpt "I suggest that new adoptive parents, including those still in the adoption process, develop for themselves what I call the Privacy Plan. They decide what information is off-limits (e.g. birthparent information, certain details about early living conditions, specific reasons the child was available for adoption) and have a plan for responding to inappropriate questions. For example, when someone asks me what I "know abou" my child's birthmother or for some other information about his personal history, I’ve developed a standard reply: "That’s not my information to share." I try to keep it simple; I say it lightly and move on. People usually get the idea pretty quickly. They don't mean to overstep. Often they've just never thought of it that way before."