Adoption Ramblings

November is National Adoption Awareness Month. 

I love adoption.

Yesterday Jonathan and I went to the Southwest Region Adoption Conference. 

It was amazing.

I had a feeling we should go when I saw the class line-up. And miracle of miracles, Jonathan had the day off. My sweet mother-in-law babysat the girls so we could go. It was such a blessing to be there with my husband and know that the kids were having so much fun with their Grandma at home. 

Now, let me just say, that we are not in the adoption process right now. If I am still not pregnant when Jonathan is done with residency, we may start again. It's just that we never got to go to something like this conference when we were going through the process with Sami. And people told us it was awesome. It did not disappoint.

We took classes on raising a blended family (meaning adopted kids and biological kids), how to talk to your kids about the birds and the bees, how to help an adopted child develop a sense of identity, and classes about adopting trans-racially. It was so informative and I thought a lot about Sami, our experience, and her birth family.  

I also learned that foster parents are my ultimate heros. That our birthmom is really, really amazing. And that we were really blessed with our birth family and our experience. Things that I often taken for granted should not be taken for granted.

We came home and the girls were so excited to see us and that always makes my heart happy. That night for book time, Sami brought me the "How I Was Adopted Book," which I thought was interesting. So we read the story and talked about her adoption. I am pretty sure that Janie thinks she is adopted too. Sami's birth family are so thoughtful, they always remember Janie too. So I am sure they will claim her too until she comes to terms with the fact that she was, in fact, not adopted. Because adoption is pretty cool in our house.