Open Adoptions Redefining the Extended Family

NPR | By Greg Allen

Published December 23, 2004 at 11:00 PM CST

Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Email

Joy Zimmerman and her adopted son, Connor, age 3 and a half.

Connor's birth mother, Cory Swayne, is still a part of his life.

Families choosing open adoption don't just gain a son or daughter -- they gain an extended family that includes a birth mother and sometimes aunts and grandparents. For one adoptive family in Overland Park, Kansas, building and keeping those ties is not as complicated as it sounds. NPR's Greg Allen reports.