“If you’ve done a county or state adoption, you know the drill. The parenting classes are the hardest. The abuse and neglect your potential new family member is likely to have experienced are played out for you on big screens, little screens, small group discussions, and panel discussions with parents who have lost their children to “the system.” It’s heart-wrenching.

By the time we finished our adoption paperwork, we already had a 4-year-old girl. She is our biological child. She was born when I was 39. Let’s just say that the pregnancy was rough; the labor and delivery were rougher. I went into eclampsia and her heartbeat dropped off the monitor. The interns were sent out and a band of seasoned doctors were brought in. It was terrifying. There was a mad dash to surgery for an emergency c-section. This did not go the way I envisioned it, but we all made it. There was a happy ending. I am an only child, and I am well aware of the loneliness that can come with that. Although I was committed to giving my daughter a sibling, I could not commit to having another biological child. ”