[sunnyrobins]

I am curious if any of you have ever contacted the birth family to request baby/toddler pictures of your child? Our FS - soon to be AS has not had contact with these folks for 4 years - but they would be the ones to have any pictures of him when he was a baby and a toddler. The only pictures we have of him are from the year and a half prior to his move in with us. My question is for those of you who have adopted older kiddos do you think making contact (in a way that would prevent them from finding our our names and our address) with the family after so much time has passed to ask if they would send him any pictures they have of him would be in his best interest . .or is it best just to leave that door closed?

[Withay]

I would recommend going through the agency, whether private or public, and have the cw contact the family and request photos. Good luck.

I was just contacted by the AG's office and asked if I could email any pictures I had of a former fc to them for the adoptive family. I heard back this morning that the pictures mean so much to both the child and the adoptive family. The family is planning on printing some and framing them so their new child will have pictures on display, just like the adoptive sibling.

[la vida loca]

I found my AD's mother on a social networking site and contacted her through that via a page I set up exclusively for contact with her. She came through with pictures of my daughter when I told her how much it would mean to her. I try to add fresh pictures pretty regularly as well. I've been able to ask her questions about family history and about memories from babyhood that only she can share. (Many of the stories require serious redaction before I can share them but they mean the world to my daughter.) It has been very positive for all of us.

[anilorak13ska]

I think pictures are sooo important! We have had our FD for only a month, and last week when we met her bio parents, we brought a page of pictures we had taken of FD during her stay with us thus far. They were very happy to have a little memento to show that their DD is thriving and doing well while away from them. We intend to send more pics with her when she is RUed.