Today I had lunch with a friend and colleague that I have not seen or talked to in several years. I hate it when I lose contact with a person whose friendship I value. Still, sometimes, it happens.

The woman that I reconnected with today is one helluva clinical social worker and an adoptive mother of two boys whom she adopted as older children. She works with children with attachment issues. She and her twin sister are also adoptees, transracial adoptees. She has also experienced search and reunion with her biological family. THWACK! Do you hear that? That's the sound of me slapping my forehead. I should have tracked her down as soon as I started blogging for adoption.com so that I could pick her brain about adoptive parenting issues. Maybe I could have even invited her to write something about her experience that I could have shared here on this blog. I'm going to check with my editor and see if that's allowed, if so, I will follow up on that idea.

Catching up with my friend and hearing all about how her children are doing was like attending my own private seminar. The woman is phenomenal. Many of my regular readers will recall that I was very persnickety with our social worker about the type of child I was willing to adopt. That turned out to be a good thing, almost perfect, for our adoption experience. My friend was just the opposite. Once she decided to adopt, she committed 100% to being the mother of whatever child came into her life. She didn't have a moment's hesitation about adopting two older boys, unrelated to one another, both with challenging histories. She has had to rely on her clinical knowledge, her therapeutic savvy, and some good old-fashioned mother's love to give her children a fighting chance and they have all come through with flying colors.

It would not be appropriate for me to share the details of their adoption story or her experience as an adoptive mother, so you'll just have to trust me when I devolve into hyperbole and say that this young woman is a miracle worker. Both of her sons are doing fabulously well and she was very much the proud mother while we were talking about our kids. It was neat to see how positive their experience has turned out to be. She still has a few more years before both of the boys are off to live independently either in college or as gainfully employed adults, but she can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

I try to emphasize the positive adoption experience in much of my writing. Sometimes, it seems that so many adoption stories are filled with trials, and struggles, and challenges, and, even, misery. I guess it is easy for the feel good adoption stories either get lost in the shuffle, or to become exaggerated examples of perfection. I was inspired after my lunch date today with my friend. Her family's experience is an example of an adoption story that is not picture perfect, or easy, nor is it filled with misery and disaster. It is a comlete story that contains all of the elements of life, just like most families. In my bookthat qualifies as a feel good story.