Adoption Month - Finally a Post!

Adoption.

Many people decide to adopt after receiving heartbreaking news.

No biological children.

Not gonna happen.

And the inevitible, "Maybe you should think about adoption."

For our family this news came just three months after marriage. At the time, admittedly, I was not prepared to welcome children yet. I was 22, newly wed and living in a very small apartment. Plus I knew we could "just adopt". Oh how those words mock me now!

Little did I know then about the difficult adoption process.

Now at age 31, only having been able to adopt one baby so far (an adorable one!), I think back on the news we received nearly a decade ago. Now the news is much more heartbreaking to me.

There were no years of trying to conceive. No pregnancies ending badly. No rollercoaster ride of TTC. And TMI - Not even money "wasted" on birth control pills.

Yet, the biological children I imagined were always real to me. They were so perfectly real in my mind, even though they will never exist. They never even had a chance.

And then I think about adoption.

The Lord hath anointed me … to give … beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness” (Isaiah 61:1, 3).

Adoption gave us our beautiful son.

He will never have my eyes or Ron's smile, but he will share our lives and be our son for eternity.

He fullfilled all our dreams and desire to be parents in an amazing way!

And even though we cannot deny our natural desire to create a biological family - we also would never wish to replace our son with a biological child.

At 22 years old I was so naive. I didn't realize the pain people suffer to have a family.

Now that I know some of that pain, it helps me appreciate so much more the blessing of children...children I took for granted before.

Know that if you're still searching for your child - the sacrifce to get to them is not easy, but it truly is worth it.