OK, literally our birth families are the families that Liz and I grew up with ... but what do we call the people who came through for us while Emily was born? I'm going to call them our birth family. They're the relatives of our birth mother Helen and our birth father Phillip.

A cornerstone of open adoption is the trust between the birth families and the adoptive family. Helen is a truly astounding person. In many ways it seems like we've simply created a new and larger family around Emily. In addition to our own familes, Helen's parents, sisters, her son Bugsy and even her grandparents are all a part of our extended family.

We were all lucky enough to see Phillip right after Emily was born. Many people don't get to meet their birth fathers, and we will always be able to tell Emily that her birth dad held her in the hospital. He looks almost as pleased as we do!

This is a picture of Helen when she last visited. We decided a detour to Santa Monica would be fun ... she thought so too! We also couldn't resist a picture of her son, Benjamin. It's really precious how much he looks like Emily.

We have a great debt to Helen's mom, Mary (check out more of her family pictures at her page. We could never have gotten to where we are today without her support. We keep in touch by email, and by phone, and we trade stories about this beautiful and confusing road we have all taken. She even scanned in these birth pictures and sent them out to our friends and family right after Emily was born. We count on her for wisecracks when we need them most ... boy can she deliver! Here's a great shot of her and Benjamin (different beach).