Terminology: In a fully closed adoption, the birthparents and adoptive parents know very little or nothing about each other and have no continuing contact. In a fully open adoption, the birthparents and adoptive parents can have direct contact, and may even visit. Semi-open is between the two, much closer to open than closed.
While international adoptions are generally closed, domestic adoptions in the United States are much more open than they used to be. We are expecting this to be a semi-open adoption, where our contact with the birthparents is mediated by the adoption agency. We’ll be sending photos and letters to the adoption agency on a regular schedule, and the agency will then forward those to the birthparents. The birthparents know a lot about us from our profile, and they have generously shared some personal information with us through the agency. But we don’t have identifying information beyond first names, and we don’t know if we’ll actually talk to the birthparents or meet them directly during the next couple of months.
