Extended family

Here are some of the articles from our long-running Diary of an Adoptive Mom series. This adoptive mother shares her experiences and secret thoughts of raising three children. This series ran from 2006 to 2010.

Note: Diary entries #1 to #7 are unavailable 

Family support worker, Heather Ratzlaff, shares her holiday gift ideas for the adoptive family.

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Q&A: Shawn Duthie

Shawn lives in Revelstoke with his wife, Leah. He’s been a foster dad for over a decade, and his adopted kids range in age from 4 to 33.

Janet was abandoned at birth outside a hospital in northern BC. In 2017, she found four half-siblings who were also abandoned as babies by the same mother. Through DNA testing, she learned the identity of her deceased biological mother and her biological father, Emil Weinreich. Janet met Emil for the first time just over a year ago. In this article, Janet reflects on how their shared love for her led her biological and adoptive fathers to become family to each other, too.

You’ve decided to adopt, and you’re ready to discuss it with the significant people in your life. Like any big life news, it can be both exciting and scary to talk about it.

Prepare yourself for the inevitable barrage of questions such as “Why would you adopt?” or “Aren’t there more health and behavioral problems with adoptive kids?”

You’ll probably hear a lot of adoption myths and some horror stories as well as personal opinions. You might also get a negative reaction.

A growing number of grandparents in BC are living with and raising their grandchildren. in this story, a grandmother shares her very personal experience with becoming the legal guardian of her daughter's child. To protect the privacy of her daughter and grandchild, names have been redacted. 

Stuck in the system

I remember getting the call from the Ministry of Children and Family Development (MCFD) like it was yesterday. It was Friday, December 30, 2016, at 9 am. A clear, cool day. 

Guardianship is a court process based on the Family Law Act that offers a way for anyone to create permanency for a child by becoming their guardian. This article explores its many similarities to adoption and its key differences. 

What is guardianship? 

Becoming a guardian means that you are responsible for all the decisions, care, supervision, and day-to-day decisions for a child. When parents are absent or unable to raise their children, other parents, family members, or grandparents often step in to help. 

Spring’s here, and Mother’s Day is around the corner. In this section, we offer a variety of perspectives on how to celebrate when adoption is part of your story.

When Mother’s Day hurts

Holidays are a natural time to reflect on family and the past. For obvious reasons, Mother’s Day and Father’s Day are extremely common times for adopted children to feel down or to have a lot of questions about their birth parents.

Author’s note: this article expresses my opinion and feelings, formed both through my own experiences and through my association with many other mothers in person, at the Forget Me Not Family Society, and in online communities.