Thoughts On Adoption

In school, Abbi was asked to fill in a paper that asked questions about her. They then glued it on the inside of a paper that looked like a shirt. We went to Back To School Night and all the kids' little people were hanging on the wall outside the classroom. When I read what Abbi's said, I almost started crying. See if you can see why:

My name is Abbi

I am 8 years old.

I have 1 brother and 1 sister.

My favorite book is I Love You Little Monkey.

One thing I don't like to do is get hurt.

The best thing about me is I AM ADOPTED!

If I had three wishes they would be to play all day, go to school all day, and color all day.

My favorite color is yellow

My favorite thing about school is math and art.

If you didn't catch on the part that I bolded is the part that made me cry. Don't worry, they were happy tears. When we first started the adoption process, someone asked me if I was going to tell our kids that they were adopted. The answer to that was, "Of course! Why wouldn't we?" Jeff and I chose from the beginning to be very open about the way our kids came to us. We are very proud of the fact that our kids came to us through adoption. It's something that makes us unique and sets us apart from all the others. It's part of our story. I guess we have never seen it as something to be ashamed of. And that's the attitude that we want our kids to have about being adopted. We want them to understand that it's part of what makes them who they are. We love adoption at our house!

On my sidebar there is a button that says: "Infertility, Adoption, Motherhood have changed my life forever and if you left one out, I wouldn't be the woman I AM." When we were going through the process of trying to get pregnant, (believe me when I say it was a PROCESS) I became very angry and very bitter. I was mad at the world. All I ever wanted to be was a mom. Why wouldn't Heavenly Father just let me be a mom? Then one day it all changed for me when I threw my hands up in the air and said, "I'm done!" It was that moment that I realized that I wasn't fully in charge of what happened in my life. That my Heavenly Father had a plan for me and that what he had in store for me was so much better than I could have imagined for myself. At that point in my life, I chose to be happy. What WAS my greatest challenge has turned into my greatest blessing. Without Infertility I wouldn't have adoption in my life. Adoption made me a mother. And, in reading my blog, you can tell what a huge part of my life adoption truly is. I have gained 3 amazing friendships through it. We all have trials in our lives. We all have things that make us different. The important part is to accept ourselves for who we are. It is then, and only then, that we can be truly happy.