Connor Howe

The people listening, you can say all this stuff and have perfectly normal relationships with the people in your life, have a perfectly normal life.

I like to look at adoption really just as a system because that's what it is.

I'm a marketer.

I look at it from like a marketing perspective of what are the promises being made.

if the promises are being made and not enforced or kept, like that's something that should change.

Like, why should we not enforce the own standards that we're kind of promising to people?

Um,

And again, I say all that, you know, I had like a pretty normal open adoption, quote unquote, based on the very few experiences I've heard.

But yeah, it's just a very complicated thing.

And I feel like people really don't understand that it is much more of a way of trying to convince people.

That adoption is not as terrifying as you think it is.

Giving your kid to a complete stranger isn't nearly as terrifying as you think it is.

It's a way of really kind of trying to mitigate those fears.

But again, you really have no idea what's going to happen.

I was fortunate enough.

to have a relationship with my mom for my whole life.

My mom could have easily not been in my life, just like you guys haven't been in your daughter's life for whatever circumstances, right?

I think people find it so easy to blame individual people and the way that things get mixed up like that.

And obviously, I have my feelings.

I'm sure you have your feelings.