Adults Say The Darndest Things: My Adoption Conversation With The Opinionated Notary

This guest blog is by Kristy, a hopeful adoptive parent.

I’m usually pretty quick-witted. I can have a conversation with almost anyone and am rarely afraid to speak my mind.

Today, that all changed. Today, I met “the opinionated notary.” And I failed the adoption community epically.

So let’s backtrack. It had been a good day—busy with work, but in that I-like-my-job-today sort of way. I needed to notarize a document for my adoption lawyer.

No problem. I left work, headed to the bank, and and waited for a notary to help me.

That’s where my day went awry. Continue reading →

Why Comments About My Multiracial Adoptive Family Don’t Offend Me

As an adoptive mom and part of a multiracial family, I often catch people staring at me and my son in confusion.

My husband, Noah, and I are Caucasion. Our son, Kelvin, who was placed with us in 2013, is clearly of Asian heritage. His birth mother is full Korean-American and his birth father is Irish and German American.

Once, at a flea market, an old man asked me, “What’s his mix?” I laughed, but my friend replied “He’s not a puppy!”

Some people may find comments like this rude and offensive, and admittedly just the sheer repetition of it can get annoying.

But often I find myself wondering about the stories they are constructing in their heads.

Sometimes when our family is together, people will stare, put the pieces of the puzzle together, and then lose interest.

But other times, you just don’t know what jumbled and awkward thoughts will come out of their mouths.

Here are some of the favorite questions and encounters we’ve gotten as a family. Continue reading →

The Day We Met Our Son’s Birthmother

This guest post is by Brian Esser, an adoptive father and attorney.

I recently wrote about how our first birth mother knew my husband and I were the right dads for her baby. Well, there is a sequel.

A little bit before our boy Keith was 2 1/2, we decided we were ready to adopt again. And when our profile was done, we told Keith our plans.

“Keith, would you like to have a baby brother or a baby sister, maybe?”

He was up on my husband’s shoulders as we walked him to his daycare.

“Um, I would like…” he said, drawing it out. “A quesadilla.”

Six months later, when we got the call about a potential match, Keith had by then warmed to the idea of a sibling. Continue reading →

Why We Set Up A Baby Nursery Before Our Adoption Match

This guest post is by Chris Hargrove and Troy Turnipseed, adoptive parents.

One night a couple weeks ago, as we headed to bed and were turning off the lights in the upstairs hall outside our baby nursery, Chris asked, “Is it weird that we have a furnished nursery and we don’t have a baby?”

Troy thought about it for a moment. “Well,” he said, “I didn’t think it was weird until you asked if it was weird.”

Continuing into our nighttime routine of teeth brushing, a Golden Girls episode and winding down with our dogs, we talked about it some more.

“No, it’s not weird,” Troy continued. “We are going to be dads! We just don’t know when. So it’s better to be ready for when the time comes!”

So how did we get to that point? Continue reading →

Watch This Grandmother Meet Her Grandbaby By Adoption For The First Time

We all love surprises.

Recently, Laura Dell gave her mother the surprise of her life.

For a year, Laura and her husband and been trying to build their family through adoption.

Her mother, who was adopted herself, knew about their adoption plans. But she had no idea that they had found a match and a placement.

So you can just how she felt when she discovered the news and met her granddaughter for the first time.

Take a look at this video that Laura made to mark the occasion. Watch the surprise, shock and over-the-moon excitement on her mother’s face. Continue reading →