Adoption is an emotional roller coaster with emotion. Everyone involved in an adoption will experience different emotions, and for a lot of people, these emotions will conflict. These conflicting emotions on different points are the reason adoption is so bittersweet.
Birth Parent Bittersweet Emotions
I am not a birth parent, but I have to imagine that placing your child for adoption is one of the hardest decisions a birth parent will ever have to make. I have nothing but love and respect for every birth parent that has made that decision and can only imagine the pain and grief that they face. I hope all birth parents feel support and love from their families and community. I think about my daughter’s birth parents every day and how thankful I am for them and for my daughter.
Adoptive Parent Bittersweet Emotions
As an adoptive mom, I remember the first weeks with our adopted daughter. I went through every emotion imaginable. I was excited and thrilled to be a mother, but also felt sad for my daughter’s birth mother and the mental pain she was experiencing. At times, I even felt guilty, but my main, overwhelming feeling was that of love for my daughter and the happiness for our family.
Adoptee Bittersweet Emotions
Especially if the children are older when they are adopted, or if they had lived in orphanages or foster care for part of their life, they may have experienced feelings of loss and abandonment. They might ask why did they end up in an orphanage, or why were they adopted? Many adoptees struggle because they don’t have much or any information about their birth parents , or do not have an open adoption, and may wonder about their birth parents. But they hopefully also receive unconditional love from their adoptive family that is irreplaceable.
