Talking Adoption

We've been talking a little more about adoption lately.  About 6 months ago I bought several adoption books off of Amazon.  Reading most of them the first time brought tears to my eyes.  There is one called the Red Thread that is really touching - expecially if you adopted internationally.  It's weird how all of the emotions I felt as an adult can be put into a children's book and explained in such simple terms.  It is about how we are connected to our children with an invisible red thread.  The couple in the story had a tugging at their heart from the red thread and they journeyed miles and miles to unravel their thread.   

We keep the books are her nightstand where they are always accessible.  We have cycles with them - like everything else in a normal family life.  Some weeks we read them non-stop and some weeks we read about Mickey Mouse instead.  We just let her pick.  One that I mentioned last week called Rosie's Family is about an adopted family - except they are dogs.  I like it because it has a bio brother and Rosie is the adopted sister.  It puts into kids terms that's it is ok to be mad or scared and that it is ok to ask questions.  I know she is picking up on some of it because she said "Rosie is adopted like me."  Having her say that was a relief for me.  That was the first time I really felt like she understood something was a little different.  I know she still doesn't get the concept, but she knows the word and it is at least a small part of her vocabulary.  We are making progress.

We also keep a copy of this first picture on our fridge and I talk to her about this day frequently.  She was wearing a pink bow and dad and I thought she was perfect the first time we saw her.  All of this adoption talk this month has had me looking back at old photos and reminiscing about those early days.  Those sweet baby days go so quickly and that was such a magical, hard earned so I soaked up every minute of it, time for us.