All about adoption

A few weeks ago I attended the Catholic Charities adoption orientation. After two years of being childless we have begun thinking about adopting. Chatholic Charities of Southern Nevada is a great organization. I have several friends who have adopted through them and they have nothing be wonderful things to say about them. I really learned so much during the two hour orientation. I learned all about the different kinds of adoption from closed adoption, to where you know nothing about the birthmother or her family or medical history to open adoption where you know everything about the birthmother including her medical history.

One thing that I thought was so interesting is they talked about how you have to decide what types of psychological issues you are willing to deal with, such as depression, alcolism, or addictions. At first thought you are thinking "I don't want my kid to have any of those things in their background" then you think, wait a minute, do I really even know what is in my backgroud? I mean my own biological children would have depression and addiction in thier background, and who knows what else? Its not like I can pick up the phone and call my great great great grandparents and ask them what was wrong with them. So it's important to know that we all have things in our past, and it's how we raise our children that is important that they will mold them into the adults they will become.

Another point that I was so surprised about what the average age of the birthmothers is 26. That was much older then I had expected, I guess I thought all the birthmothers would be teenagers, not young adults. I mean crap- I am only 28- so I am 2 years older then the average birthmother.

I was very impressed with the amount of education that Catholic Charities provides to both the birthmothers and the adoptive parents, becaue of that eduacation they have very few adoptions fall through at the last minute, because everyone knows what to expect, and there are no surprises.

I walked about from that orientation armed with lots of informaiton, and we are going to fill out the inquiry paperwork and start to go through the process, we can stop at anytime and pick up where we left off at any time. I beleive that John and I are meant to be parents, we just may not know where our baby comes from.