I am part of an online group of Christian adoptive mothers. Most of them have several adoptive children and they all have been parenting their adopted children for a number of years. I thought it would be interesting to get their thoughts on adoption now that they have been “into it” for a while.
The question I asked was, “What do you wish you had known when you started out in adoption?” Here are a few of the responses I received:
“I wish I had known how the love for your child grows and grows and grows before and after. It takes away the ‘Am I able to care for this child?’ feeling. God provides the love and strength. ~Patricia
“I wish I had known how much it would enrich our lives. Even our existing family. How much our faith would grow and our desire of “earthly” possessions once we really SAW the need and how great of blessing it is. Also, how many lives around us it would touch. It is incredible how God uses it to bless others, and speak to others in so many avenues of their life. ~ Mandy
“I wish I had known what a profound sadness I would feel during the act of taking my child out of their country of birth. I remember sobbing as the plane rose into the air on it’s way to leave Cambodia. I never thought I would feel sad for an entire country because I was “taking” one of its jewels, but I did. ~Anita
“I wish I would have known that adoptions really is a miracle! Everybody talks about the ‘miracle of adoption’ but I didn’t put much stake into that thought until I was holding my brand new daughter and could literally physically FEEL my heart fall in love with her. God grew my heart two sizes in two minutes!” ~ also from Anita
For those Families.com readers who have adopted, I would love to hear your responses. What do you wish you had known?