Internet hangouts

Not exactly burger joints or bodegas, Internet groups and forums are nonetheless great places for hopeful adoptive parents to hang out. Once you get into the swing of participation, you may get hooked, and there a plenty of moms who suffer withdrawal symptoms if they don’t get their daily dose of chat.

The usefulness of forums only begins in the planning phases of adoption. Once your child is home, you’ll find advice on everything under the sun … and moon … about parenting, birth parent relationships, open adoptions, medical issues, car seats, pets, and on and on.

In addition to online support, there are many organizations and groups where all notes of the triad can find like-minded others … or people with far different points of view. If you subscribe to the theory that all information is helpful or necessary, you may want to make your way around.

There are a couple of things most people learn after enthusiastically joining every Web group, listserve, and forum they come across while searching for information in the early stages of the adoption process: they can be addictive, and not everyone is nice.

Once you’ve prepared yourself for the divergence and discomfort, in addition to the wisdom and welcome that can be found on the Internet just by Googling adoption, you can move along.

If a comprehensive resource of facts and stats is sought, the NCFA Adoption Factbook is a place to start.

The Center for Adoption Support and Education, Inc. has a helpful website.

Well-regarded, up-to-date and very active in all issues of adoption, The Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute provides a wealth of information and has a monthly newsletter you can subscribe to.

Blogs are a wonderful way to soak up information. Adoptionblogs.com puts the adoption world at your fingertips every day, and if that’s not enough reading for you, here’s a swicki site that will link you to dozens, if not hundreds, of other adoption-related blogs.

Forums are also a great resource, and being able to ask specific questions and get specific answers, as well as commiserate over wait times and paperwork, can make the difference between surviving the adoption experience with hair, or ending up with nothing but handfuls by the time it’s over.

The forums on Adoption.com have hundreds of threads on just about every topic anyone has been able to think of, and reading may prompt questions that hadn’t even crossed your mind.

At Yahoo, there are presently 4766 groups dedicated to adoption listed on their directory, so something for everyone there, and Google groups abound, as well.