Our Adoption Story

Awash National Park, Ethiopia 2008

I was intrigued with the thought of adoption when I was just  a little girl watching Little House on the Prairie.  Charles and Carolyn adopted three kids (on the TV show anyway) and I cherished the idea of giving kids with no parents a home.

Fast forward twenty years or so and I found myself in the middle of an international adoption.  I fell in love with Ethiopia while pregnant with my (then) second child and couldn’t stop thinking about adopting from there. When discussions came up about having a number three…we took the big step and came home with #3 and #4.

Our adoption was a bit non-traditional in that we adopted two older kids (birth siblings), messed up everyone’s birth order but the youngest and twinned our oldest child.  We pretty much did what all the books say not to do!

My plans are to someday write a post that gives more details on our adoption process, but I will say that I am of the strong opinion that traveling to your child’s home is a must, I disagree with changing the names of older child with adoption and respect is a must when it comes to birth families.

It has been a long process.  Four years into it I can honestly say that this is the hardest thing I have ever done.  Not hard to love them. I loved them from the moment they were an idea in my head and heart. The challenge is parenting two children who have been traumatized and had a life full of loss.

I still am in love with the idea of families opening up themselves for children needing homes and loved ones. I am just a bit more cynical on the process and implications that seem to be overlooked in adoption.  Ethical adoption reform is needed and I thank God everyday that our adoption was done by the book.

I am open to questions about older child, trans-racial adoption or about adoption in general. You can leave a comment, email me at FourAgainstTwo@gmail.com or tweet me at @FourAgainstTwo.

I participated in an Adoption Reading Challenge  and here is the link to my reviews of books on or with the adoption theme.

The following are links of adoption pieces I wrote for Adoption.com when I blogged for them:

I Now Hate To Look At My Referral Pictures

Ethical International Adoptions Are A Must

Deciding On An Adoption Agency

Thanks for reading!