Lori Holden is a mom via adoption to two children. She was named a Top 10 Must-Read Mom by Parenting magazine and writes extensively about open adoption parenting at WriteMindOpenHeart. Lori has published several articles in Adoptive Families magazine and is the Open Adoption Examiner.
Attendees are expected to be adoptees, birth/first parents, adoptive parents, adoption professionals, therapists, researchers, educators, media professionals, advocates, attorneys, policy makers and legislators. Registration is $85 for the two-day symposium and includes lunches. Registration is open through September 9.Jim Gritter (LifeGivers, The Spirit of Open Adoption) and Adam Pertman (Adoption Nation) are the keynote speakers at the Open Adoption Symposium.
Organizer Rebecca Ricardo, Director of Coordinators2Inc (and Richmond Adoptive Families Examiner) says that "attendees will have opportunities to discuss, from multiple viewpoints, adoption as a lifelong process. We do not intend for this symposium to discuss only open adoption nor to only discussion adoption from a positive or negative perspective. We will have a wide range of perspectives to give a full view of the complexity of the issues and to allow attendees an opportunity to consider adoption from a perspective other than their own."
Besides the keynote sessions there are more than 20 workshops presented. Some topics include:
- Tips from the Trenches: Finding Middle Ground in Open Adoptive Parenting
- How to De-Freakify Open Adoption
- Open Adoption: An examination of First/Birth Mothers experiences
- International Adoption: The journey to raising a secure & resilient child
- Older Children Adoptions: Opening their truth
- Openness Options when building a family through third party reproduction
- My First/Birth Mother Friended Me!: How families can manage contact from Facebook & other media
- Under the Microscope: Adoption practices during the Baby Scoop Era pertaining to surrendering mothers
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