Adopting

For much of my life, I have wanted to adopt. Whether one or more, it's always just been something I assumed I would do. As a kid, I viewed adopting a child or children as a convenient way to avoid the excruciatingly painful experience of childbirth. Eventually I got over that fear. I never got over adopting, though.

As a tween/teenager, I somehow read a lot or fiction and non-fiction about kids in foster homes. It made me so sad and angry! Kids who are given up by their parents or taken away from their parents but are not adopted become wards of the state and are put into foster homes. Foster homes are families or single adults who are entrusted by the state to take care of the child. These families/individuals are paid money to cover the living expenses of having another child. Unfortunately, often people will foster parent simply to make money. Some stats on how screwed up foster homes can leave children...
-- Children are 11 times more likely to be abused in foster homes than they are in their own homes. (National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect)
-- 80% of prison inmates have been through the foster care system. (National Association of Social Workers)
-- 30% of the nation’s homeless are former foster children. (Casey Family Programs National Center for Resource Family Support)

How does this relate to adopting? Well, part of the foster care problem could be alleviated by adoption. Since I was a young teen reading stories about foster kids, I knew I wanted to adopt to do a small part.

When I think about adopting, it's completely normal to me. I think of it as perfectly normal to have a child or two of my own and raising them as siblings to a child or two I'd adopted. A friend recently was asking me how it's possible to love a child who is not your own blood as much as you would love a child who is your own. To me, that's never even crossed my mind: I'm choosing to adopt a child, so obviously I would choose to love him or her as my own child.

Knowing families who have adopted and have raised or are raising adopted children alongside their own biological children has only further proved to me how wonderful it can be. The latest was Amy and Eric. These friends of mine are absolutely exceptional as they not only adopted a second baby to raise alongside their biological child Mason, but from the start they wanted to adopt a special needs baby. In the end, they were given a beautiful black baby girl named Maleah. Sometimes when I tell people about Amy and Eric and I think about how humble and serving they are, I get teary eyed. As a Christian I believe I am here to be part of God's hands and heart on the earth carrying out His love and service; Amy and Eric overflow with this selflessness and love. Seeing their family only rekindled my own desire to adopt a baby.

Why adopt? There's so many kids out there needing families... I want to meet at least a little of that need. I'm not particularly attached to my own genes, so I don't mind raising someone elses genes. Here's perhaps my weirdest reason for wanting to adopt. There's a huge population boom, and eventually the earth won't be able to support such a huge human population. So, if I want more than two kids, I would most certainly adopt; I don't want to contribute to population explosion!

Well, that's about it as far as my desire to adopt. I'm smiling now, because I get happy thinking about adoption and the Hartleys and all.