This is part two of a keynote address I gave at an adoption celebration hosted by the county in which I live, Prince George's County Maryland.
Please click here for part one. Continuing on:

Just like giving birth to a child, with adoption every experience is different. There is no one size fits all adoption experience. Some of us adopt after already having had a child placed in our homes as a foster child. Some of us learn about our children for the fist time with a photo or a case summary. Some of us meet our children for the first time at an adoption matching party, or at a park, or like we did, at McDonald's.

However our journey begins, and each and every step along the way, adoption is and can be many things. Adoption is unique. Adoption is special. It is powerful, it is moving, it is reverent. But after filling in the blanks about what adoption is and what it can be with every adjective under the sun, you are likely to discover, as one woman whom I know in the blogosphere puts it so succinctly, adoption...is. It just is.

Make no mistake about it, no one knows better than I what an extraordinary, phenomenal, exceptional and unparalleled experience adoption is. I could go on and on with the over the top descriptions of what the experience has meant to me. But in the daily grind of raising my children, all of them, I find that the true miracle of adoption is that it just is.

When I am racing around in the morning like a crazy woman telling my kids to "get up, get dressed, eat your cereal, brush your teeth, wash your face, get in the car this minute and let's go!" Adoption just is. When the school principal calls. When the school nurse calls. Then the report cards come home. When the piano recital or the big game is only days away and the finger gets broken. When the tears fall. Adoption just is. When the breakfast dishes are being cleared and beds are being made and floors are being vacuumed. Believe me, adoption just is.