All Roads Lead to Motherhood

For as long as I can remember, I have wanted to adopt a child. I just don’t see the appeal of being pregnant and giving birth, such a painful and dangerous process, especially when there are so many beautiful babies out there that need families. My parents were just like, “okay, cool.” They were always pretty cool about letting me make my own decisions about my life. It is the reaction that I get from other people that is strange to me. People always ask me, “well what if your husband wants his own child?” That question says a lot about their idea of what a parent is. We have been talking a lot about motherhood in this course, about what makes a mother, and I know that it is not just biological. As the sister, cousin, and auntie of people that were adopted, I understand that the love that you feel for your family has very little to do with biology. I do understand that adopting a child can slightly change the dynamic of parenthood. When I adopt my baby, I do not plan to hide or to be secretive about the fact that they are adopted. I’m not going to be like, “I’M NOT YOU REAL MOM!!!” but I will expose them to the idea of adopted children early on, in order to normalize it for them. If I read them books about kids just like them, kids that maybe don’t look like their parents, I think it will make it less of a big deal for them. When another kid at school asks if they are adopted, they will be able to just say, “yes,” and think nothing more about it, the same way a child who lives with their biological parents can just say, “yes, that is my mom/dad” without thinking anything of it.