Personal stories

Heather always knew she would adopt. She grew up in a busy household with seven other siblings, five of them adopted. At 26 she took the plunge to adopt as a single and has never looked back. Now, with two adopted sons with Down Syndrome, Heather lives a full life. Here, we get a glimpse into her life, and she shares her experience with the adoption process, as well as some words of wisdom. 

We've added 40 books to our adoption library! Check them out here, and stop by our head office in Burnaby to borrow one. For more information on our lending library visits our main library page.     

Heather Massick (née Phillips) describes her family as “a large, blended, adopted/ foster family with two parents.” Heather had two children through adoption and one foster child when she met her husband, Glen. Glen has three children from a previous relationship, so they became a six-kid household. Almost two years into their relationship, Heather was approached by the birth parents of the two she had already adopted regarding permanency planning for the two younger siblings. Heather and Glen both said yes, which brought them up to eight children.

Here are some great new books from the world of adoption!

1) The A-Z of Therapeutic Parenting: Strategies and Solutions

by Sarah Naish

In our ongoing Everyone has a Story series we interview families in our community about their experiences with adoption, parenting, and all the ins and out of their journey!

Would you like to be interviewed for an adoption story? Reach out to Allie Davison, AFABC Communications Coordinator.

Focus on Adoption and AFABC have always sought to centre adoptee voices and perspectives, but the #FlipTheScript campaign (launched during Adoption Awareness Month in 2014) inspired us to launch a regular column called "Adopted Voice." The series ran from 2015 to 2016.

In ongoing this series, we interview experts about your key questions about adoption.

Are you an expert wanting to lend your knowledge to our families? Email us at editor@bcadoption.com.

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 

In our Living Openness series, adoptive mother Charlotte Taylor shares her experience navigating the world of open adoption. This series originally ran from 2013 to 2015.

The Whiteheads adopted their son, Thomas, as a baby, and while he was born premature and with health complications, he has grown up into a healthy, sports-loving teen. The Whiteheads have an open relationship with the birth family, and that has helped them to keep their son close to his Indigenous roots. This is their adoption story.