Adoption Experience

Decisions

• Why did you decide to adopt?
• How did you find the process of being approved?
• Did you ever think of giving up?
• Did you think of taking on a child with a disability? Sibling group?
• Why do you think a lot of children are left in care?
• How did your extended family feel when you told them you had decided to adopt?
• What is the hardest thing about adopting?
• Have you adopted again?
• Why did you decide not to adopt after all?
• How did you admit that you no longer wanted to adopt?
• What advice would you give to someone considering adopting?

Introductions

• How did you prepare for adoption?
• How were you matched with your child?
• How was it when you first met your child/ren?
• How did it feel when they first came to your house?
• How did/do you manage the relationships between adopted and birth children?
• How did you help them settle into their new home?
• Did you always know you were adopted?
• What happened when you were officially adopted?

Bonding

• How long did it take for you to bond with your child?
• How are adopted children different from birth children in your experience?
• Do you think you can love an adopted child in the same way people love a birth child?
• Do you think siblings should be adopted together or separately?
• What would you say to anybody thinking about adoption?
• Is it strange to ultimately look after someone else's child?
• Is adoption what you expected it to be?
• How is adopting children different to birth children?
• What are the brilliant things about adopting?
• How did your adoptive parents help you to come to terms with being adopted?

Ethnicity

• As your child gets older how will you deal with his heritage?
• Do you think it is right to match children by ethnicity – even if that means they may stay in care longer?
• Why was your child matched with you?

Birth family

• Does your child have contact with their birth family?
• Has your adopted child started to question his/her identity?
• What do you think is the best way to explain birth families to adoptive children?
• How would you feel if your child wanted to see their birth family in the future?
• Do you know why you were taken in to care?

Introductions

• What are you looking for in potential adopters?
• How do you tell a child they are going to be adopted?
• How do you tend to introduce a child to new parents?

Bonding

• Why do adoptions breakdown?
• Do you think adoption is a good thing?
• Why is it that adopted children can present more problems than birth children?

Decisions

• Why did you decide to adopt?
• What advice would you give to someone considering adopting?
• What are the unanswered questions you have to deal with when you’re adopted?
• What advice would you give to adoptive parents to help their children feel at ease?

Introductions

• How were you matched with your child?
• Did you always know you were adopted?
• What is it like waiting to be adopted?
• How did you feel when you met your adoptive family?
• Are you pleased you were adopted?
• What happened when you were officially adopted?

Bonding

• Is it strange to ultimately look after someone else's child?
• What do you think are the issues adopters face?
• What were the hardest things for you about being adopted?
• How did your adoptive parents help you to come to terms with being adopted?
• How do your emotions over your past play out?

Loss

• Can you tell me about why your child was taken into care?
• How did it feel having your child taken into care?
• How did you overcome your loss?
• Have you thought about your child since they went in to care?
• Was there a stigma over having a child adopted?
• When was the hardest time?

Birth family

• Have you made contact with your birth child?
• How is life after your child has gone in to care?
• How did you go about looking for your child?
• What happened when you spoke to the adoptive parents?