THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | OCTOBER 2023 29 OUR FOREIGN SERVICE Adoption JOURNEY Former AFSA Governing Board member and Foreign Service Journal Editorial Board member Clayton Bond was an FSO from 2001 to 2017. An attorney and small business co-owner, he is senior adviser for diplomatic fellowships at Howard University’s Ralph J. Bunche International Affairs Center, and continues to volunteer with AFSA and serve on nonprofit boards. His spouse, Ted Osius, is a former AFSA Governing Board member and U.S. ambassador to Vietnam (2014-2017). They and their two children live in Washington, D.C. FOCUS ON FS FAMILIES AT HOME We began thinking about becoming adoptive parents many years before we took the plunge. In Washington, D.C., we had attended a “Maybe Baby” class designed for LGBT+ prospective parents that covered a range of topics. We learned about surrogacy and adoption, and settled on the latter. We also learned that there are open and closed adoptions. Closed adoptions, where the identity of the birth parents is neither known nor sought, are more traditional, but we began to see that an open adoption would be our preference. With an open adoption, the birth parents and adoptive parents are known to each other, and communication between them and the adopted children is encouraged. This is increasingly considered to be the healthiest approach for all parties, and it made sense to us. Our comfort with the idea of an open adoption grew as a result of what we saw and learned from friends who had adopted in that manner. Here is an insightful and heartwarming account of how one couple fulfilled their dream of becoming parents through adoption. BY CLAYTON BOND
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