Adopting Older Kids

Karen over at the Naked Ovary, recently said, "This is only the beginning. I don't have the luxury of learning how to parent this child as I go along--eight or twelve or fourteen months of her life will already be spent without me. I feel like I'll have to do things right by her from the beginning." That reminded me of a fantastic poster I saw at work recently for AdoptUSKids. They're an adoption group (obviously), and one of their things is encouraging people to adopt kids who aren't babies--babies are easy, everyone wants to adopt them. But after kids get to be about two, people aren't so interested in adopting them. I understand--it's scary to think about raising a child who, like Karen said, has already had a life without you. How do you fit into it, or fit her into yours?

Anyway, their poster was a big picture of a gorgeous little boy, about four years old, with curly black hair and dark eyes, and a big smile. The tagline read:

"You may have missed my first words, but I'll make it up to you."

I don't know why, but it just really got to me. It's true--you may not have breastfed them or had their birthmother hand them to you at the hospital, but they'll make it up to you. Because you're their mother.