Introduction

Last week at Target: “Did you adopt her?” the woman behind me in the checkout line asks. I tell her I did and she immediately looks at the floor. “You are so lucky. I wish I could do something like that.”

I can’t get it out of my mind. I keeping thinking about people and what stops them from doing the things they want to do.

About two years ago my husband and I decided it was time to adopt. We told our family of the plan and then started telling our friends (and anyone who was interested and had an ear) about it. Through the course of our conversations we were shocked to find out how many of those people had at one time thought about adoption and had even considered it. Most said the desire was there but they had never made the step to get serious about it and didn’t know if they would. Always, people came back to the same reasoning as to why they didn’t think they could or would adopt: money, fear, effort. All of these reasons are natural, we faced all of them personally. But really, all three reasons boil down to just one: fear. And fear should not ever carve the path we tread.

There was another group of people we seemed to learn about often as well. Dear couples who were exhausted and disappointed from years of trying to conceive and failing. Most of these people were closed to the idea of adoption despite their fierce desire for a child to love.

I want to talk about adoption. I want to speak to those four topics: infertility, money, fear, and effort. I will probably step on some toes and for any unnecessary discomfort I apologize in advance. My intentions are to clear up some questions that I am all-too-familiar with myself. The next few days I will post on one topic at a time.

Adoption is so close to my heart. And maybe, just maybe, hidden in the words I write, some single soul might find a key that unlocks a question that unlocks a heart that opens wide into the arms of a child. If there is even a small chance- I write.