OUR SUPPORT

When you work with an adoption agency you can be supported through all phases of the process.  From the initial options exploration stage right through the pregnancy, birth, placement, and post adoption.  When working with Sunrise, your counsellor will be there for you, in person, by phone, email, text, or virtually.  Your counsellor will help support you while you navigate the many decisions and emotions you will face throughout your journey. It's important to know that when you decide to place your child for adoption, you are in charge of the process and the process is confidential.  

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Some birth parents may have family or friends, with whom they wish to place their baby for adoption.  In other cases, birth parents have met someone through word of mouth or have heard of a family wishing to adopt.  It is possible for you to select a family that is not registered with Sunrise.  Some of the challenges you may face if you select a family that has not been through the adoption homestudy process is that they may not have the understanding about openness in adoption or the training in adoption.  It's helpful to know all of your options before making a decision. This keeps you in the driver’s seat of your process.

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HOSPITAL STAY-PLAN

Our birth-parent counsellor will work with you to develop a hospital-stay plan. This plan will detail your requests and wishes during your stay in hospital, and after the baby is born. A hospital stay-plan can be helpful in structuring what you are looking for in terms of time spent with baby, and gives the adopting parents, agency, and hospital staff, the ability to know and respect your wishes. The stay-plan can be fluid and you can change your mind at any time during your adoption process.  

 

SELECTING A FAMILY

You will have a chance to view the profile of every adoptive family registered with Sunrise. There are many families from every walk of life, with diverse interests, belief systems, and backgrounds. For example, you will be able to select a family that has prior children or no children, depending on what your wishes are. All of our families have been prescreened. They have been through an in depth homestudy process, during which they are interviewed by a social worker over a period of months and then they also must have criminal record checks, ministry prior contact checks and medical checks.

 

You can select a family that shares your beliefs, goals, dreams, and hopes for your child. To view the profiles of some families that are currently waiting to adopt a child, click on Adoptive Parent Profiles.  Additional families’ profiles are available through our office. 

 

OPEN ADOPTION

We use the term 'open adoption' to describe ongoing contact between adoptive and birth families.

 

To understand open adoption, it is useful to start with the definition of 'closed adoption'. In a closed adoption, the information that is exchanged between the parties is non-identifying and there is no ongoing contact after the adoption. In "open adoption" the information that is exchanged may or may not be identifying but there is ongoing contact after the adoption.

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Range of Possibilities 

​In a fully open adoption, the families exchange identifying information and establish a significant ongoing relationship. In other cases, openness may mean the occasional visit or phone call, and the exchange of letters, pictures and progress notes. In some cases there is no ongoing contact. 

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How do I choose?

​No one size fits all. When considering openness, we hope you will think about your needs and your child’s needs in the short term, in the mid-term, and in the long term. Your counsellor will help you figure out what level of openness is right for you. Some women initially feel that ongoing contact will be too painful and difficult while other birth mothers know they want ongoing contact with the family from the beginning. Our experience is that birth mother’s feelings change over time, so we will help you consider all of the possibilities. 

 

What does that look like?​

Ideally, openness should be discussed before the birth of the baby, to identify and clarify expectations. However, relationships grow and change over time, and openness usually evolves over time. Sometimes the relationship between the adopting parents and the birth parents grows during the pregnancy and by the time the baby is born everyone is comfortable with ongoing direct communication. There are circumstances when the time frame between meeting each other and the birth of the baby is not long enough to establish a relationship; in this case, we can help you build your relationship with the family after the birth of the baby.