The family orchard: a case study of open adoption, the law, and family formation

Abstract

According to the 1995 National Survey of Family Growth and adoption filing data, families formed through adoption are increasingly rare. It is estimated that just .8% of United States families were formed through adoption in 1995. Although this percentage appears small, the idea of adoption is much more pervasive. The number of women who had considered adoption in 1995 were considerably higher, at around 20%, and adoption filings in the United States in 1995 numbered above 57,000. For those families who adopt, open adoption is becoming more prevalent. This open adoption of unrelated children is a relatively recent process in the history of adoption, and the law pertaining to this form of adoption has yet to be fully articulated. This qualitative analysis of one adoption circle, who have experienced open adoption, helps to understanding the way in which open adoption and the law effect family formation. Using the qualitative interviews of five people, I found that the members of this adoption circle often experienced the same event in differing ways, and that gender had an impact on how the family members experienced the legal and social processes of adoption. Furthermore, although adoption is a legal means of creating a family, this was not readily apparent in the family narratives. The legal processes of adoption were incorporated into the descriptions of the social processes adoption, which includes such non-legal processes like parenting classes, thus illustrating that the effects of law may be felt on an unconscious level. Finally, in their narratives, the family members had a difficult time articulating where each person fit into the family, illustrating the newness of this family type, both for this family and for U.S. society.