When my four year old adopted daughter A and I were hospitalized, the being adopted became of interest to others. It was very enlightening to watch people’s responses, the questions that were asked, things people said, and how some acted. When you are quarantined in a room for a week with your daughter and you have a lot of time watching and interacting with people you can learn a lot. Especially, when cartoons are the only things on the television to calm my daughter:).

Our hospital is a small country hospital. It is one of the top 100 in the USA, so I feel it was a very good hospital. We were placed in a private room (it is all they have), so my bed had to placed into a pediatric room (it was pretty tight) along with the crib beds for little ones. When we were admitted there were about 7 people crowded into our already small room, starting IV’s, blood drawn, both had our own nurse, the admitting nurse taking all our information. She asked me about my medical history, I explained I was adopted, no real reaction. Then she moved to my daughter, I explained she was also adopted, she stopped writing along with everyone else in the room, and asked, “You are both adopted?” The tone of her voice had totally changed and she seemed shocked and very confused. Everyone was just glancing around the room at the other employees (it was very strange when someone is trying to start an IV on one of us and drawn blood on the other one and they just stop). I said, “Yes, we are both adopted.” The others did finish up their jobs and left the room.

The admitting nurse asked if I had any information concerning my daughter’s birth or any conditions that they needed to beware of.

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