I saw the Four Things meme over on a friend's blog and thought that it might be fun to remake the meme a bit so that it would apply to adoption. If you feel like answering these questions on your blog, let me know in the comments section, below. Or give your own answers right in my comments, if you'd like.


Four things I thought about adoption when I was a child
-- I imagined it might be cool to be adopted by someone really rich (you know, in those moments when my mom wouldn't spring for those Calvins I had my eye on)
-- I imagined what I'd do if someone left a baby on my doorstep
-- I couldn't understand how anyone would ever be able to relinquish a child
-- I thought it might be neat to adopt a child myself someday

Four things I've learned since then
-- That adoption issues are incredibly complex
-- That most birth mothers have their children's best interests at heart and are doing their best with terrible circumstances
-- That there are huge numbers of kids in the world waiting, many of whom who will never have a family
-- That the privilege of adoption has been an incredible blessing to my family

Four silly things people have said to me about adoption
-- How much did they cost?
-- Do you have any real kids?
-- Didn't their real mom want them?
-- Are they sisters?

Four things that are hard about adoption
-- Waiting
-- Waiting
--Realizing that many people would have been able to parent their own biological children if only they'd had the right support at the right time.
-- Facing your child's grief and loss issues, and feeling sad when you can't make all their sadness go away.


Four ways my adopted children have surprised me
-- With how soon they began to ask adoption-related questions
-- With their resilience in the face of huge upheaval in their lives
-- With their similarity to me in various ways
-- With the way they have completely and utterly captured my heart


Four things I wish everyone knew about adoption
-- That getting educated about adoption issues is way more important in the long run than worrying about the paperwork.
-- That there are millions of awesome kids in the world just waiting for families
-- That the funding will come if you just jump in and do it
-- That parenting adopted kids is just as miraculous and wonderful as parenting kids born to you.