All done and Adoption ...

I'm not sure why, but I've been reading everything I can lately about adoption. There's just something about it that has resonated with me. I've read articles, signed the petition for Glee to stop representing adoption so horribly, and checked out the LDS Family Services site more than I should probably admit. Some of it started when these amazing friends put up their profile. But much of it started long before and the interest hasn't faded. Awhile ago, I found this blog and this blog through a mutual acquaintance. I found them through one of those "help us adopt" banners on another friend's blog. I remember really loving them and wishing I could do more than offer up a silent prayer that they'd be blessed with a baby soon. I stopped reading for awhile, got busy, and awhile ago decided to click over again.

It was awesome to see that they'd been blessed with a beautiful baby girl and I cried when I read their adoption story. The joy practically jumps off the page. Something drew me over there again today, and then I found this. It's a blog written by their little girl's birthmother. I read it all in one sitting, soaking it up. There was a discussion on a feminism blog I follow the other day about adoption and birthmother, birthfather, and adoptive parent rights. It's tricky to come up with policies and laws that adequately deal with such highly emotional and important issues. Many who commented were either birthparents or adoptive parents and they were almost unanimous in this one thing: It's complicated. So it was amazing for me, as an outsider to the process, to see the other side. I've rejoiced with several friends and family members who have adopted. But seeing it from her side made me appreciate how amazing adoption is even more.

When Dave and I first started talking about marriage, the possibility of adoption would often come up when we talked about our plans for children. It's something both of us feel strangely drawn to, even though we have no reason to think that that will be a necessary route for us to build our family. Who knows ... there's still a lot that remains to be seen in that area. For now, I don't anticipate adopting an infant, at least one from the U.S. There are too many amazing couples for whom that is the only way they can have a child for me to feel right about going that route if we have other options. But I can absolutely see us taking in a child of any age for a short time while their own family gets back on their feet through foster care, or maybe adopting an older child that needs a home. We will see. In the meantime, I'm hoping it's not too weird that I still love reading adoption profiles or adoption success stories.

Well, that's the end of the alphabet posting challenge. It only took me 8 months to complete, right?