Adoption April : My thoughts on Adoption

So I'm back! Back at work, and after an eventful weekend that included Kayvmania (pictures and explanation to come) I'm excited to get back to blogging, reading and running! But most importantly, it's still Adoption April! This is the third post in my "Adoption April" series. The Intro, First Post and Second Post can all be found at those links. Today I wanted to post about my thoughts about adoption and why I think it worked well for my family and me.



I know many of you have children of your own, or are at the stage in your life that you are having children or considering this for your family. Personally, I have never thought of myself actually having kids. I don't know why I think like this, but I think possibly that it has to do with the fact that my mom didn't 'have me' so I can't imagine myself being pregnant or actually having a child. I still haven't made a complete decision on whether or not I want to physically have children but I think that also will depend on when and who I marry and all that sort of thing. Go ahead, comment with what ever you think, but remember everyone is different.



I do think that adoption is such a powerful thing, and honestly, I will consider it when I am ready to have children. I think a lot of people think that adoption is only adopting drug babies, problem babies, or children that have gone through foster care, which isn't true. I was a completely healthy, albeit small, baby and was adopted into a loving home. My birth mom never contacted my parents to ask for me back, there were never any issues with her or my birth family. I know that could have been a possibility, but it hasn't happened yet... :)



BABY DANICA!!!! :)



When I was growing up, most people honestly couldn't believe I was adopted. I looked like my family and had the same attitude and mannerisms as my mother. Now, I am JUST. LIKE. MY. MOM. It was never a 'weird' thing to talk about with my friends either. Surprisingly enough, one of my best friends and now roommate is also adopted. We sometimes talk about it, and our feelings, but like me, she has known her entire life that she was adopted. She also harbors no bad feelings towards either sets of her parents. It's a fun bond that we share together and it's also nice to talk about our adoptions together.

I never, ever felt different than other kids. I never felt like I had a different relationship with my parents or different family setting. I think the openness that my parents had helped this, and I also never felt unwanted, or uncommitted too. I never felt abandoned or like my birth parents didn't love me or want me and that's why they 'gave me up'. They were mature enough to realize that they couldn't provide the best life for me and wanted to give me a chance at a better life. That is why they gave me up for adoption.



The best part about adoption is that I was openly welcomed into a family that I wasn't biologically part of. I NEVER felt unaccepted, or questioned if I was suppose to be there. Granted, I grew up with my family, grandparents and cousins that all loved me unconditionally and I think that always made me feel welcome and loved. I was a part of my family unconditionally. I think that has made the biggest difference for me.

I wasn't born into a family, I don't know my exact heritage, or who gave birth to me, but at the same time that doesn't make me less of a person, or question why I'm here or what I'm doing without my original family. I have always thought of my adoptive family as my one and only family. I would like to meet my birth parents one day but I honestly don't have the money to hire a private investigator and everything at the moment so I know it will come with time, but I am looking more into it. I understand that they might not even want to be in communication with me at the same time. I feel that the only important thing that I would need to possibly get from them is my families medical history for any genetic diseases that I might be exposed too. If they would like to communicate than that's also great. I will discuss more about them in my next post which is suppose to be all about them and my feelings and what I do know about them.



Sweet outfit! :)
Please feel free to email any questions you may have for the last post of adoption April to (danica) (koo) @ (gmail) (dot) (com).

So a quick running update, bullet point style

• I was in a huge running rut
• I took over a week and a half off, only running twice and running two shorter runs
• I don't know how anyone can run in Hawaii, it's WAY too hot and the Humidity... killer!
• My toenail finally came off... BOO!
• BUT! underneath there was a new toenail! Yay! I don't look like a freak!
• I got back to running this weekend and realized that I'm out of shape so I am going to work really hard to get back into shape and nail the San Diego Marathon that is also only 41 short days away!

This week I'm going to work on getting my endurance back (shouldn't be too hard) and then I have a long run planned this weekend that will get me back nose to the grindstone.

As for the Hawaii post? I've decided to separate them up into two posts, one probably tomorrow and one on Friday :) It was amazing and wonderful and now I have a sweet tan. We did lots of cool stuff and I took a ton of pictures so I'll share some with you, don't worry. I also have some good reviews coming up, including a review of the Garmin. Hope everyone had a wonderful week without me.

xoxo