Family · Adoption
Adoption Family Integration Worksheet
Holding joy and loss together from day one
Adoption creates a family that includes loss at its foundation. This sheet helps parents hold both the joy and the grief that live in the child's story from day one.
The story the child owns
The adoption story is the child's, not the parents' — to know age-appropriately, to feel about however they feel, to revisit at different developmental stages.
How we talk about the birth family — in tone, in words, in what's present in the home
Signs of adoption-related grief at this stage
Rituals that honor the child's whole story
Both/and, not either/or
Loving the adoptive family does not erase grief for the birth family. Making room for both prevents the child from having to choose.