With adoption becoming a more talked about issue it puzzles me that people act so surprised when they find out Madilyn is adopted. Sometimes I want to ask them why they are surprised but I never do.
I wonder if it surprises them that David and I would open ourselves up to the world of adoption. While the end result of adoption is wonderful, the road to finalization is long and hard. Some couples end up never completing the adoption process because of the emotional roller coaster that adoption introduces into their lives. Other couples end up having a stressed relationship which ends in a failed marriage because of the frustrations of the adoption process.
Sometimes I wonder if it surprises them that the state actually approved of us as parents. According to the state we are physically, financially, mentally, and socially fit to parent children. The state requirements for adoptive parents are daunting. Before we could even be considered as an adoptive family we had to complete stacks of paperwork. In addition to the mountain of paperwork we had to endure intensive personal interviews, and provide references from friends, family, and employers. After the initial paperwork and reference information was processed we had to then participate in invasive home studies, have our finances analyzed, submit to criminal background checks, and have physical and mental evaluations. Failure in any one area could have prevented us from being able to adopt. I can not help but think that if biological parents had to be state approved to have children the world would be a lot less populated.
Maybe the surprise comes from them being unable to believe that she is not biologically ours since she is so smart and beautiful. Yes, that must be why people are surprised to hear that she is adopted because she is smart and beautiful~ just like her mommy and daddy.
Caleb and Madilyn are blessed to have you for parents! And you are Right…she is smart and beautiful….that is the way God intended for her to be…and it helps that her parents are smart and beautiful too…just like God planned all along…:)