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The Adoption Annex
A Place Where Adoption Is Celebrated
By Teri Brown
There are some events in a person's life that affect their character, their ideals and their chosen profession. For Kevin Cohen, that even took place before conscious memory, when he was adopted by his parents, Joan and Michael Cohen. "It was a source of pride, being adopted," says Cohen. "I never had identity or esteem issues. I always looked at myself as a chosen person. My adoptive parents were everything in the world I could have imagined. Never had a desire, and still don't, to meet my birthparents."
Cohen is grateful that his parents raised him to be proud of who he was and of being adopted. He feels that children who have not been raised with a forthcoming attitude toward their adoption often have self-esteem issues. In his desire to pass on the blessings of adoption to others, Kevin Cohen became an adoption attorney, but that wasn't enough. He then founded Adoptcop, a nonprofit organization set up to better inform people of whom to work with or not to work with in the adoption world. The organization also affords people an opportunity to have their grievances heard.
"There are huge amounts of injustice in the adoption arena," says Cohen. "Adoptive parents are victims waiting to happen because they often get anxious. Pursuing adoption is a huge expenditure of money and emotion, and people don't want to bite the hand that will feed them. I want to better educate people as to what the playing field really is."
But that still wasn't enough for Cohen, and soon the idea for The Adoption Annex was born. The Annex is a nonprofit agency dedicated to all things adoption. Cohen wanted to create a place where the process of adoption would be celebrated as everything it can and should be. "I want to give thanks to the process that gave me so much and to my parents in whose memory The Annex is being dedicated," he says. "I never remember not knowing I was adopted, and my hope is that people who visit The Annex will never leave viewing adoption the same way as when they walked in."
The Adoption Annex, located in Roslyn, N.Y., is a one-stop shopping arena for all things adoption, including:
