19 Amazing Things About Growing Your Family Through Adoption

Adoption is a journey.

1. Families created through adoption are some of the most colorful and unique.

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They can be any combination of race, nationality, gender, age, and orientation.

2. Adoption allows couples with reproductive challenges to become parents.

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3. It allows same-sex couples to become parents.

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4. It allows single people to become parents.

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5. It allows children who are neglected, orphaned, or abused — or whose birth parents are unable to care for them — to find healthy homes and loving parents.

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6. There are lots of great adopted role models:

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John Lennon, Maya Angelou, Steve Jobs, Babe Ruth, Nelson Mandela, Faith Hill, Tim McGraw, Marilyn Monroe, Mother Teresa, Greg Louganis, Edgar Allan Poe, Malcolm X, Presidents Gerald Ford & Bill Clinton, first ladies Eleanor Roosevelt and Nancy Reagan, Jamie Foxx, Dave Thomas, Eartha Kitt, Moses, and Superman, to name a few.

7. Adoption can expand your worldview.

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It can teach you compassion and understanding, and cause you to step outside your comfort zone.

8. Adoption stretches the boundaries and understanding of what a family should be...

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...or look like.

9. While home studies can be a pain in the ass, they are a vital part of the adoption process. Afterward you’re not only qualified to adopt...

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...you also have a clean, child-proofed home, working smoke detectors, a fire escape plan, your taxes in order, updated physicals, a really nice scrapbook, and fond remembrances of all of the places you've lived in the last 20 years!

10. You get fingerprinted and an FBI background check...

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...without having to serve time!

11. Jumping through all the hoops of the adoption process builds character and teaches patience and perseverance.

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It also qualifies you as a world-class circus performer!

12. Once you've completed the home study, social worker interviews, CPR training, and parenting classes, you’re completely vetted, well-trained, and extremely informed.

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And fully equipped to be a kick-ass parent!

13. The day an adoption is finalized is such a joy and a relief.

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It's like winning the lottery, going to Disneyland, and walking on the moon all rolled into one!

14. In addition to birthdays and anniversaries, many adoptive families celebrate their own special holiday: Gotcha Day!

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Whether it commemorates the day a child first came to live with a family or the day their adoption was finalized, it's a wonderful way to celebrate the uniqueness of adoption and becoming a "forever family."

15. Adoption shows that who a person becomes has more to do with how they’re raised...

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...than whose genetics they share.

16. Adoption isn’t charity.

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You're not saving the world, doing a good deed, or helping the needy. But it is a calling.

17. Once the documents are all signed and the court dates are past, you’re just like any other family.

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Celebrations and tantrums; victories and heartaches; tears and laughter; hugs and kisses. But most importantly, belonging.

18. There are no accidental adoptions.

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Adoptions are intentional and thought-out, hoped for and planned for. Out of all the parents and children in the world, you were brought together to be a family. You were meant to be.

19. The truth is, adoption is always born out of loss.

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The loss suffered when a child is separated from their birth parents. A lost dream of having a biological child. Lost years trying to become — or find — a family. Yet while adoption begins with loss, it always ends with hope and restoration. It always ends with a family.

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