The question I hate

I really do not like when I am asked if we will ever try again to have a child of our own. Time has taught me to smile and reply, "We already have a child who is our own." I do find it hard to leave it at that sometimes. Kaylee is our daughter. I will not deny we are parenting a child who has a birth family...but does that qualify her as not being "ours"? We are the parents who play with her, feed her, and pray with her every day. We are the ones rocking her late at night when she is sick. We are the parents taking her to gymnastics and dance classes. When she says, "Mamma!", I am the person who goes to her to see what she needs. How much more "my own" could she be? Would DNA really make her my own? I don't think so!

When we were TTC, our focus was always that we wanted to be parents. When we learned we would not be able to have biological children, we were really upset at first. We felt like we would not be able to fulfill our desire to have a family. After much conversation and prayer, we remembered what our desire was from the very beginning of our journey..... to be parents! Our ultimate desire was not to have a child growing in my womb. We wanted to share a life with a child. We wanted to parent a child. Our ultimate desire was to be a family! After this realization, choosing adoption was a natural way for us to grow our family. We love our daughter and are so blessed to be parenting such an amazing child.

So today when I was faced with the question I have grown to hate, I stepped back and realized that I am Kaylee's parent, she is my child, and that really is all that matters!