Susan Meisel Levin, PA

From Grief to Joy

From Grief to Joy | Adoptive Families Adopting > Decisions From Grief to Joy When you lose a parent or grandparent, you mourn the past. When you lose a child, as I lost my 24-year-old daughter, you grieve for the future that will not be. By adopting after this unimaginable tragedy, I wasn’t aiming to bury my grief or to start over, bu...

“It Takes No Special Power to Love a Child”

Hayden & Her Family: Special-Needs Adoption Documentary The filmmaker and parent featured in the documentary, Hayden & Her Family, discuss special needs adoption, parenting outside “normal” boundaries, and how loving a child changes you.

“Breathing”

“Breathing” - Adoptive Families As I prepared to adopt my second child, I welcomed the home study worker into a perfectly clean and ordered home. The scene that greeted her at her post-placement visit was, well, different—but much more real.

Thank You, Bàba

Thank You, Bàba: The Selfless Love of My Daughter's Foster Father Six months after she came home to us, our daughter stopped speaking. As I searched for clues as to her sudden silence, I became profoundly grateful to her Chinese foster father, a man I had never met, for teaching me a valuable lesson about selfless love.

How to Be an Anti-Racist Adoptive Parent

How to Be an Anti-Racist Adoptive Parent Learn how to be an anti-racist adoptive parent — interrogate your own white privilege; talk with your child about systemic racism and the Black Lives Matter protests; and more.

Mothering Children of Color Who Are Becoming Adults

Mothering Children of Color Who Are Becoming Adults A mother who adopted transracially shares conversations with her Latino teenagers and reflects on the fact that she can't guarantee their safety and security as they move into the world on their own.

“Finding My Inner Mom”

An Adoptive Mother Finds Her Inner Mom "For years, I felt ambivalence about becoming a parent, and worry that I wouldn’t be 'perfect.' I look back on that moment when I first met my daughter through international adoption."

Ask AF: How to Cope with the Disappointment of Not Being Chosen by an Expectant Mother

Disappointed That We Weren't Chosen to Adopt by an Expectant Mother "Our adoption profile was shown to an expectant mother, and she selected a different family. We knew this was a possibility, of course, but feel disappointed. How to cope?"

Letters to the Editor, RE: April 2019

Adoptive Families magazine - Letters to the Editor, RE: April 2019 Readers share feedback about articles published in the April 2019 issue of Adoptive Families magazine.

Enter Our 2019 Cover Photo Contest

2019 Adoptive Families Magazine Cover Photo Contest Want to see your child on the cover of Adoptive Families magazine? See previous winners and enter the 2019 Adoptive Families Cover Photo Contest.

“Sliding Doors”

An Adoptee on Birth Parent Fantasies and Imagining Alternate Lives We all imagine different ways our lives could have played out. Adoptees may grow up wondering: ‘What would my life have been like if I had not been adopted?’