"What is an Adoptive Mother?"

My mom came across this article and sent me the link. I loved what it had to say about the love involved in adoption. Here are some of my favorite lines (which apply to adoptive fathers, too!):

"Adoptive mothers are embracers, not only of the child with many hugs and kisses, but of the child’s heritage and history. She embraces the facts of her child’s past with strength for herself and the child."

"Adoptive mothers are experts at finding lost objects, but understand and validate the profound, deep loss left by adoption. She allows the tears to fall and grief to be felt, allowing the mourning of the mom not there. She is secure in knowing that she’s not a replacement, but a finisher of a race for someone who, for whatever reason, could not run any longer."

"This role is not for the weak of spirit, or the easily wounded. Loving a child not born to her but calling him her own, but this is what she does, it is her calling. She is a mother."

We are so eager to adopt again. But we're still waiting for the background check in Utah to come through. Our clearance in California came through...right about the time we moved. We had to start that aspect over once we got here. I've been fingerprinted (for this and for teaching) four times in six months. Grumble!!

So LDS-Family Services won't even post our profile on their website (itsaboutlove.org) until we're approved. Understandably, they don't want a birth mother who is due tomorrow to decide we are the family for her, only to learn we're not ready yet. Still, I just want our name and face out there! I finished the application in August of last year...and for nine months have been waiting for first the California clearance and now, having moved, the Utah clearance.

I will stop whining. I'm just eager to grow our family! Like I've said in the past, please spread the word for us. We found David's birth parents because I gabbed with a doctor at a concert. You might bring us to our next child's birth parents.