Talking About Adoption

Who’s job is it to tell people our child’s adoption story?  Is there even such a thing as a right to know when it comes to a person’s adoption status?  Of course the child herself or himself has a right to know, but that’s not what I’m talking about.  What about the child’s relatives?  Friends of the family?  Parents’ coworkers? There are situations when it is abundantly clear that an adoption took place.  The parents may have needed to take a lot of time off work for travel, or a group of people see the mother on a regular basis and go from seeing her slim one day and with a baby the next, or the parents look nothing like their adopted child. … [more]

Craig is one of my better friends and stops by all the time. He stays well informed about everything happening with my family and we often talked freely about the goings-on in our life. So when my wife and I adopted our son he was one of the first to stop by for a visit. We sat across the living room from one another talking about the different aspects of adoption—specifically about the things we hadn’t anticipated. We were talking about what it was like to be full-time parents while someone else, living somewhere completely separate, also carried a title of “parent”. It was something unique to get used to; a concept we needed to adjust our minds to. I had been… [more]

Most adoptive parents dread the thought of being seen as “not real parents” to their adoptive children.  The pendulum seems to swing in the opposite directions out of adoptive parents’ fears, minimizing the role of the birth parents with the use of the qualifier (“birth” or “biological”, etc.), while at the same time taking offense at similar qualifiers with their own title ("adoptive" parent instead of just "parent").  Is there a better way? If we stop thinking of the title “parents” as being strictly limited to a certain definition, we are able to accurately represent all parties.  In my own life (I was not adopted), I have several people in my life with the title “parent”.  My mom and dad, of course, but… [more]

When an adopted child first comes into your home, the joy and excitement the little one brings is magical. There is nothing like that euphoria. You fall in love. However, when the child's health or behavioral challenges surface, an adoptive parent's imagination can easily drum up dark fears.   While a birth parent worries about the child's issues, as an adoptive parent, you may also worry about the issue plus the unknown or known history of the adoptee's background. You may even hear the haunting voice from a family or friend who was against your adoption, "Why adopt?  You don't know what that child has in her background." This is when you must stay strong. Separate the facts from fiction.  Your… [more]

F-E-A-R-L-E-S-S  Letters spelled out in splashes of bright paint across the soft brown sides of the little horse.   A four legged canvas for the word that she wanted to stay forefront in her mind as she thought back to her time at the Ranch.  Words attached to memories.  Memories that she tucked away like treasures to be brought out in times of struggle and darkness.  Memories that would give her the strength to break free. Those memories threatened to flood her even now, fresh on her mind, as she stepped back to admire her art.  The intimidation at the size of her partner for the week- how the little mare seemed so large that first day.  She remembered her uncertainty the first time… [more]

It was a beautiful day yesterday.  A treasure to enjoy before the cold weather sets in.  Early fall, the sun was shining, the leaves just starting to turn orange, red and yellow.  We ran around as a family; cleaning the garage, cheering at soccer games, friends stopped by, the boys looked for frogs and played wiffle ball in the backyard. In the afternoon, my husband piled as many boys as he could fit in his car and took them out to lunch. I took Eliza, my four year old in my car. She wanted McDonalds (sorry health nuts), or Old McDonalds, as she calls it, so we went to get her Happy Meal, and I got the requisite boring mom salad.  We… [more]

There was a recent poll taken by the Pew Center for Research recently which dealt with changing trends in American families.  The questions asked to over 2,500 Americans had to do with trends in American families and whether the individuals who were polled considered various things to be good, bad, or of no consequence to society.  People were asked about a variety of different family arrangements: more mothers of young children working outside the home, more people of different races marrying, more gay and lesbian couples raising children, and more single women having children without a male partner to help raise them,..... The researchers called about a third of the respondents (31%) “accepters”--About half to two-thirds of this group say that these trends… [more]

A few weeks ago, Jenna wrote an awesome, spot-on blog about "Dear Abby" missing the mark with her answer to an adoption-related question. A few days ago, I stumbled upon another "Dear Abby" query that touched--albeit very briefly--upon adoption. This time, Abby's answer wasn't the problem, though. Here's the actual question to Abby: DEAR ABBY: I'm a 43-year-old woman with one adopted 16-year-old child. I have never had children of my own, and I'd like to try again. My 44-year-old husband feels we're too old now, and of course society thinks we're too old, too. We have friends whose kids are having kids. Do you think we're too old? -- OPEN-MINDED IN MICHIGAN Okay, you already know where

I am very open about adoption's role in building my family. My husband and I married while I was pregnant, and he adopted Bear a few months after his birth. Beauty is adopted from Guatemala. Suffice to say, adoption is a big, beautiful part of my life. I've noticed that many people assume that both my children are adopted (which they are, by my husband). It doesn't bother me, but when the conversation of pregnancy versus adoption arises, many times I get hit with the infamous question: which is harder, pregnancy or adoption? Oh, boy. In short, you really can't compare the two; it's apples to oranges. While pregnancy has an approximate start-to-finish time; adoption usually… [more]

Today, Bear approached me and said: "Mommy, when are adopting my brother?" I told him I didn't know, but that adoption can take a long time sometimes. We talked a bit about Beauty's adoption from Guatemala and how it took a bit of time to get the paperwork in, and then we had to wait to find out she was in need of a family, and so on. He sat down beside me, and put his head in his hand and said, "This sure is a big deal then." Yes, baby. It's a big deal. A big, beautiful, and sometimes, seemingly-endless deal. I am continually amazed at the level of understanding my kids possess when it comes to… [more]