How AAU Began and How Adoption Has Changed Since 2006
Twenty years can change a lot. Technology changes, communities change, and the way people understand family changes. Adoption has changed too. Since All About U Adoptions began in 2006, conversations about birth parents, open adoption, ethical practices, and lifelong support have continued to evolve.
Through those changes, one thing has remained at the center of our work: adoption is about people. Every placement involves an expectant mother making an incredibly personal decision, a child whose story will continue throughout a lifetime, and an adoptive family preparing to become part of that story. Looking back at 20 years of All About U Adoptions is an opportunity to consider how adoption has changed and what we have learned along the way.
All About U Adoptions Began in 2006
All About U Adoptions was founded in April 2006 as a nonprofit adoption agency serving families and expectant parents. What began more than two decades ago has grown into an organization serving communities throughout South Dakota, North Dakota, and Nebraska.
Since those early days, AAU has been part of hundreds of adoption stories. In 2026, the agency celebrated its 350th placement, an important milestone that represents far more than a number. Behind every placement are individual people, relationships, decisions, and experiences that have shaped AAU into the agency it is today.
Growth has also meant reaching people across a large and often rural service area. A pregnant woman considering adoption may live in Sioux Falls or another larger community, but she may also be hours away from an adoption agency or major hospital. Making adoption services accessible to women regardless of where they live has become an important part of how AAU serves the region.
Adoption Looked Different in 2006
By 2006, adoption had already moved a long way from the secrecy that characterized much of the twentieth century. Open adoption was increasingly common, birth parents had more opportunities to participate in the process, and adoptive families were learning that a child’s connection to a birth family did not need to disappear after placement.
Still, adoption continued to carry misconceptions inherited from earlier generations. Many people pictured a birth mother handing her baby to strangers and never seeing the child again. Others assumed adoptive parents were the primary decision-makers or believed that contact with a birth family would make adoption confusing for a child.
The past 20 years have brought greater awareness of the complexity behind adoption. Birth-parent experiences are discussed more openly, adult adoptees have added their voices to conversations about adoption practices, and families have become more aware that adoption does not end when legal documents are signed.
Expectant Mothers Have a Voice in the Adoption Process
One of the most important principles in modern adoption is that an expectant mother should have meaningful choices throughout the adoption process. Considering adoption does not mean surrendering control over every decision that follows.
A woman can learn about adoption without committing to it. If she decides to create an adoption plan, she can be involved in choosing an adoptive family and deciding what she wants her hospital experience to look like. She can also discuss the type of relationship she hopes to have with her child and the adoptive family after placement.
AAU’s role is not to make the decision for her. Our job is to provide information, answer questions, explain the process, and support her as she determines what is right for her situation.
That distinction matters. Ethical adoption begins with the understanding that adoption must be a choice rather than an outcome someone is persuaded or pressured to accept.
Open Adoption Has Changed What Placement Can Look Like
Perhaps one of the biggest changes in modern adoption has been the continued growth and understanding of open adoption. A birth mother placing a child for adoption does not necessarily have to disappear from her child’s life.
Open adoption can allow birth parents, adoptive parents, and children to maintain an ongoing connection. The relationship may include pictures and updates, phone calls, messages, video chats, visits, or other forms of contact agreed upon by the people involved.
These relationships do not all look the same, nor do they remain exactly the same as children grow. What matters is creating a relationship centered on respect, communication, and the needs of the child.
Greater openness has also changed how many adopted children understand their stories. Instead of growing up with unanswered questions about where they came from or why an adoption occurred, a child may have opportunities to know members of the birth family and hear parts of that story directly from them.
Support for Birth Parents Cannot End at Placement
Earlier approaches to adoption sometimes treated placement as the conclusion of the process. A child joined an adoptive family, legal steps were completed, and a birth mother was expected to return to her life.
We now understand much more about why that approach is inadequate. A birth parent may experience grief alongside confidence in the decision she made. Important dates, birthdays, changes in the open adoption relationship, or new stages of life can bring different emotions years after placement.
Those experiences deserve acknowledgment rather than an expectation that a birth mother should simply “move on.” Adoption becomes part of her life story, just as it becomes part of the child’s and adoptive family’s stories.
Support after placement is therefore an important part of ethical adoption practice. A relationship with an agency should not exist only while a woman is pregnant and making an adoption plan.
AAU Has Expanded How It Reaches Women
Serving South Dakota, North Dakota, and Nebraska presents challenges that agencies operating in a single metropolitan area may not face. Distance can be significant, particularly for women living in small towns and rural communities.
A woman should not have to live near an AAU office to ask questions or receive support. Over the years, AAU has expanded its ability to meet women where they are, including traveling when needed and helping address transportation barriers that could otherwise make accessing services difficult.
AAU’s Community Health Workers have further strengthened that community-based approach. Community Health Workers can help connect people with resources and navigate practical needs that extend beyond the adoption itself. Pregnancy rarely happens in isolation from concerns such as housing, healthcare, transportation, employment, relationships, or other challenges in someone’s life.
Meeting those needs does not mean assuming adoption is the answer. It means recognizing the whole person who contacted us.
Technology Has Changed Adoption Too
In 2006, smartphones were not part of everyday life and social media looked nothing like it does today. Prospective adoptive parents were often introduced through printed profiles, physical photo albums, letters, and in-person meetings.
Today, someone considering adoption can research agencies, read about prospective families, communicate by text or video, and find information almost instantly. Birth parents and adoptive families can also maintain contact across hundreds of miles in ways that would have been far more difficult two decades ago.
Technology has made connection easier, but it has also made transparency increasingly important. Pregnant women can research an agency before calling, compare information from multiple sources, and learn more about their rights before beginning an adoption plan. That access to information can help people ask better questions and make more informed decisions.
More Than 350 Placements Mean More Than 350 Stories
Reaching AAU’s 350th placement in 2026 gave us a reason to recognize an extraordinary milestone. Yet adoption cannot truly be measured by placement numbers.
Every adoption is different. Some women contact AAU early in pregnancy and have months to consider their options. Others reach out shortly before delivery or even after their baby has been born. Some have strong family support, while others may be navigating pregnancy largely alone. Each woman brings her own circumstances, questions, relationships, hopes, and concerns.
The families are different too. So are the children who grow up through adoption and eventually develop their own perspectives about what adoption means to them.
More than 350 placements means hundreds of stories that continue long after the day a baby leaves the hospital.
What Hasn’t Changed in 20 Years
Adoption practices will continue to evolve. Laws will change, technology will advance, and the voices of birth parents, adoptees, and adoptive families will continue to teach adoption professionals how to do this work better.
Certain things should remain constant.
A pregnant woman deserves accurate information. She deserves to be treated with dignity regardless of her circumstances or the decision she ultimately makes. No one should have to know for certain that she wants adoption before asking an adoption agency for help. Most importantly, the people involved in adoption deserve to be treated as people rather than parts of a transaction.
For All About U Adoptions, 20 years is an opportunity to appreciate how far the organization has come while continuing to learn from the people who have trusted us with some of the most important moments of their lives.
As National Adoption Month gives us a reason to look back, it also gives us a reason to look forward. Adoption has changed significantly since AAU opened its doors in 2006, and it will continue changing. Our responsibility is to keep listening, keep learning, and continue working toward adoption practices built around respect, honesty, choice, and lifelong support.
Need support? Contact AAU for adoption in South Dakota, adoption in North Dakota, or adoption in Nebraska.