National Adoption Month

November is National Adoption Month. 

For most people that doesn't mean anything.  Not a cotton darn picking thing.  In my family?  It's a big deal.  For many of my friends, it's also a big deal.

It was 1986 when I found out that biological children would never be in my future.  After grieving for a while, I (as my dear friend Lisa says) put on my big girl panties, sucked it up  & moved on. 

Adoption wasn't a foreign word to me.   It isn't that I knew anyone who told the world that he/she was adopted.  It just wasn't a foreign concept to me.  After all, who hasn't grown up watching Shirley Temple in The Little Princess?  Or Heidi?  Come on.  Face it.  Adoption was pretty hush hush back then.  Now, lo these many years later, we shout "Adoption" from the rooftops.  Now adoption is a topic to be dealt with.  Those of us fortunate to be adoptive parents tend to be pretty open about it - especially if you have adopted internationally.  Let's face it.  Many of our children don't resemble us. 

Anyway, this is our month to celebrate.  We celebrate our families.  We celebrate how our families came about.  We celebrate our friends & their families.  This group, this clique, if you will, is different.  We understand each other.  We know how important adoption is & why.   We know the stress of the journey.  We know the stress of trying to come up with the money involved because unlike a biological child, there is no insurance to help defray the costs involved. 

We know that somewhere out there are birthparents who for whatever the reason, gave up their child.  Forget the bureaucracy.  Forget the paperwork.  These children are what it's all about. 

Happy National Adoption Month to all of my family & friends!!