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First of all I am so happy to hear that your daughter has choosen life for her little one. Now she is contemplating the difficult decision to parent or not to parent. Tough!!! Especially at age 16. So many things you would like to do in your life and now it will all change regardless of your choice.
Parenting is a tough tough job. It will exhaust you like nothing else can : )! The rewards I have found come in what parenting has taught me. And the sometimes happy smiles I get and the unprompted I love you Mommy, can really make your day.
In todays world it is possible to have an open adoption where you can have as much or as little contact with adoptive parents as you want. Some choose letters and pictures at certain periods every year (usually referred to as semi open) and some have weekly contact and visits...and everything in between.
We have a semi open adoption with two sets of birthparents. We recently opened farther to include visits which have now become even more difficult as first we moved further away (job reasons certainly not birthparent reasons : ) ) and now they have moved as well so it is anyones guess when another visit will occur. Anyway....we are SO glad to have a relationship with our kids' birthparents. They at 5 and 3 can give a preschool version account of their "story" . As the kids grow we know that their relationship with the birthparents will too. They will always know each other. Now we liken the relationship (do to distance) as one we have with a distant cousin we really like.
I hope you consider both options and really research and think how you will feel not just now but in 2 years, 5 years, 10 years and really do some soul searching. Perhaps you could find a single mother support group along with a birthmother support group. Good luck to you!
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