National Adoption Day is a very important resource to shine the light on the large number of foster children waiting and hoping to be adopted. It also allows the public to see adoption maybe in a positive light allowing the image of adoption to be changed. National Adoption always falls on the Saturday before Thanksgiving. Thousands (in 2006 – 3300 foster children were adopted) of foster children have their dream come true on this day. These foster children have been given a great gift of a forever family on this special day.

Judges, attorneys, adoption personnel, child welfare agencies all work towards the goal of... more

Most adoptees want to know things about their past and their birth families, which is totally natural and understandable. Kind of like with the adoptee’s birth certificate before adoption, we feel we should have the right to it since it is also a part of our beginning. The beginning of our birth is part of us along with our adoption and everything in between. This is where the sense of you can be found. One side does not tell the entire story or give us all the answers. Our existence is from two different sources, that are different but in some ways very much alike.

Can... more

While I have heard some people (mostly people without an adoption connection) totally disagree with changing a child’s or baby’s name when they are adopted. I was adopted at six weeks old along with my sister a year and a half. When we were adopted our parents decided to keep our first names and change our middle names to a family name.

The thought of keeping part of the given birth name and the adoptive parents adding a name of their own to the adoptee is a nice balance. To keep part of the past while embracing the future is how I see this.

Yes, I have heard that some adoptees are very opposed to have their birth name changed and in some cases change their names back... more

We never known what life will bring at each corner. I wrote about the feeling of being in a hurricane. I had started to find calmer waters and was actually starting to feel like I could get through this. I had a reader (John) leave me a comment that I really needed and that helped me see things from a different light. It did make me smile, which I needed.

With my half brother’s death and trying to come to terms with it was... more

Is adopting because of your faith a valued reason to choose to parent a child through adoption? While I do not like to question peoples religious faith or beliefs but adding adoption to the element makes me a little uneasy.

Does an the adoptive parent adopting due to their faith look at the difficulties of parenting adopted children or do they just believe their faith will take care of things? While I am a person of faith and believe in God, I am not sure it should be the reason a person decides to adopt a child. I believe that I was adopted into the right family and the children... more

I wanted to share my four things about adoption from the view point of an adoptee. Yes, I am following behind Mary Owlhaven’s from the Ethiopia Adoption Blog post “Four things about adoption” I’m just late to the event.

Four things I thought about adoption when I was a child

That people (general public) did not understand adoption and were quite cruel at times when they talked about adoption or had questions.

That... more

I was out of town so I was unable to do my Love Thursday. I still wanted to share it, so it is a couple of days late.

I have been blessed with having an angel looking out for me in my life. My Aunt (adoptive) O was watching out of me long before I knew. She is the reason I ended up with my parents. She was aware of the situation that my birth mother was in, and that CPS was about to get involved. She knew my parents had been hoping and looking to adopt for some time.

On my wedding day, my Aunt O asked, “If she could tell me something about my adoption.” I responded,... more

At this time, the feeling of being at sea and in the middle of a hurricane probably describes how my life is. The intense force of everything in life coming at you from all different sides makes keeping your head above the water rather difficult at times. Being overwhelmed does not even begin to describe how I am feeling.

My birth mother and birth sister decided that they now want to meet and talk about things. The whole idea of this makes me queasy and afraid to open myself up to more pain. They will probably... more

Love is feeling connected and love without the connection of blood or DNA, which society thinks is the foundation of love. The love that comes with adoption is the true unconditional love. When adoptive parents hold their children in their arms, they do not think of the past or where that child came from. Yes, they remember the loss and sacrifice that a birth mother made. That child in your arms becomes a part of you, to the point you can see yourself in that child whether it is their laugh, their personality, or their funny little looks they give. That child grows to become your child, with the love that any child has for their parents without the thought of adoption.

The relationship... more