Father’s Day

A Day for Dads

This Sunday is Father’s Day, a holiday traditionally set aside to honor the dad’s in our lives who’ve helped make us who we are today. It’s meant to be a day of celebration, appreciation, and gratitude. But for a birth father of an adoptive child, Father’s Day might contain very different emotions.

At HOPE Adoption & Family Services, we understand that, even after an adoption has happened, a birth father can still play a significant role in a child’s life. This is one of many reasons why our agency practices Open Adoptions, where the birth parents maintain a relationship with their child after the adoption has been finalized.

A Birth Father’s Role

In an Open Adoption, birth fathers are encouraged to be actively involved in the adoption planning process and in the ongoing relationship with their child after the adoption. If a father chooses to actively be involved in the adoption planning, he can make many of the adoption related choices that the mother can make. Some of these opportunities include:

Deciding what type of adoption feels right to him (open, semi-open or confidential)
The ability to look at profiles of prospective adoptive families
Meeting potential adoptive families
Making a mutually agreed upon decision regarding which prospective adoptive family is right for their child
Creating an agreement regarding on-going contact that is unique to him

The adoption planning process can be done together with the mother of the child, or separately, depending on what feels right for all involved.

Minnesota Fathers’ Adoption Registry (MFAR)

The Minnesota Father’s Adoption Registry provides a means by which a father can register to protect his rights to be notified of his child’s pending or future adoption. The registry is for potential fathers who have not established paternity and who are not married to the mother of their child. The potential father must register no later than 30 days after the birth of the child.

Passionate About Support

The HOPE Pregnancy Services Program believes strongly in supplying supportive services to fathers as well as mothers and families. If you would like to know more about birth father rights, open adoption, our pregnancy services program, or any of our programs in general, feel free to contact us at any time!