The People Who Changed My Life, I Call Them Mom and Dad

Adoption is special. Adoption helps kids have a chance in the world to be loved and to be happy. If I wasn't adopted who knows where I would be. Definitely not here talking to all of you wonderful people about my adoption story. Let me begin...

My parents, Doug and Margaret, are the most amazing people in the world. My dad was in the navy and grew up in a small family and my mom is a dental hygienist with a very large family, nine siblings. My mom always knew she wanted kids. All of her siblings were getting pregnant and popping them out like there was no tomorrow but not her. She felt heavyhearted and jealous that everyone was having babies and not her. My parents went to the doctors to find out that my mom couldn't conceive. She was devastated. She then realized that there are so many kids that needed homes so she thought "Why not adopt?" They first adopted my brother Sam, my brother Luke a year later, and then me six years later.

When my biological mom was pregnant with me she did drugs. Her drugs of choice were cocaine and meth. I was born on December 16th and adopted shortly after. My parents didn't know what they were signing themselves up for when they adopted me. The first year of my life was rough. I was born addicted to drugs, you know what that means... withdrawal. I was sick and cried a lot. Let's just say nobody got any sleep that year.

Growing up I would wonder why I didn't look like my parents and everyone else I knew did. My brothers weren't their biological children either but Sam looks like my mom's family and Luke looks like my parents but me, I don't look like anybody. When I talked to my parents they explained everything, sugarcoated of course, but I started to understand. The older I got the more questions I had. "Why did my parents give me up?", "Did they not love me?", "Did I do something wrong?" I didn't understand why my mom would do the things she did and why she didn't want me to be her baby girl. My mom recently told me that she had other kids, that's when I realized I was lucky. I could have been living in a home where I wasn't taken care of but instead she found something in herself to give me a change to have the life that she could never give me. I've grown to realize that just because you were adopted doesn't mean your parents didn't love you. It means that they want to give you the opportunity to grow in a more stable environment and to grow into compassionate, smart, and loving people. My family has made me realize that you don't have to be related by blood to be family, you just need to love each other more than anything.

If you were adopted and having trouble understanding or you have recently adopted and are wondering how to talk to your child about it feel free to email me: [email protected].

Thanks for reading.