November 30, 2015 adoptee perspective, adult adoptee, birth family, November 2015 Feature - Embracing Their Story 0 Comments

“Why don’t you look like me, Daddy?” “When did I come out of your tummy, Mommy?” “Why did my “real” Mom not want me?” “So, you are still my real parents, or are they my parents?” “Will you ever leave me?” If you are an adoptive father or mother, questions like these from your child …Read More

November 26, 2015 November 2015 Feature - Embracing Their Story, telling their life story 1 Comments

I realize now that when we first brought our children home, I had an undefined, but deeply felt and well-meant desire. However, I have also realized that my desire was not exactly what God had in mind. Let me explain. I wanted our adopted children to be so loved, so secure, so encompassed in the …Read More

November 23, 2015 adoptee perspective, embracing their story, heritage trip, November 2015 Feature - Embracing Their Story, orphanage visit, telling their life story 0 Comments

Their story with us didn’t start at the beginning. I think we jumped in around chapter 3 or 4. Much like opening a book midstream and trying to piece together a plot, our adoptions began with many unanswered questions and many holes that I knew we could never fill. Yet at some point, I knew …Read More

November 22, 2015 adoptee perspective, adoptee Q and A, November 2015 Feature - Embracing Their Story, telling their life story 1 Comments

We know that God is the only one who can heal hearts and redeem stories. But what of our role as shepherds of their hearts? One powerful, guiding gift we can dig into is the experience of others, young and old, who are willing to share their stories. As part of our Embracing Their Story …Read More

November 20, 2015 adoptee perspective, adoptee Q and A, birth family, Jean, November 2015 Feature - Embracing Their Story, older child adoption, telling their life story 0 Comments

We know that God is the only one who can heal hearts and redeem stories. But what of our role as shepherds of their hearts? One powerful, guiding gift we can dig into is the experience of others, young and old, who are willing to share their stories. As part of our Embracing Their Story …Read More

November 19, 2015 birth family, Katie, November 2015 Feature - Embracing Their Story, telling their life story 1 Comments

Our children have stories that are a paradox of tragedy and beauty, of despair and hope. There is no easy answer to their stories. It’s complicated and so the way we handle it is complicated, and ever evolving. Children are beautiful. They are full of hope and they believe in miracles. They believe in unicorns, …Read More

November 18, 2015 disruption, failed adoption, November 2015 Feature - Embracing Their Story, older child adoption 3 Comments

Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Romans 12:12 That’s been my view on most things in life: it is what it is, not what it should be. Our daughter came to us on September 1, 2013, at 8.5 years old. She’d been adopted from China at age 4.5 by another family, …Read More

November 15, 2015 Jean, November 2015 Feature - Embracing Their Story, telling their life story 0 Comments

Thirteen children and thirteen stories, each different but with a common adoption thread. As we brought our children home there were other things (many things) to focus on. We needed to get to know each other, like each other, and eventually love each other. We needed to learn how to live as a family. On …Read More

November 12, 2015 adoptee perspective, adoptee Q and A, birth family, November 2015 Feature - Embracing Their Story, telling their life story 1 Comments

We know that God is the only one who can heal hearts and redeem stories. But what of our role as shepherds of their hearts? One powerful, guiding gift we can dig into is the experience of others, young and old, who are willing to share their stories. As part of our Embracing Their Story …Read More

November 11, 2015 Amy, birth family, November 2015 Feature - Embracing Their Story, telling their life story 0 Comments

I remember talking with our social worker almost four years ago about things that would come up in conversation with our adopted child someday; more specifically – “what will you tell her about how she came to be yours?” At the time we were 9 months away from receiving her referral, therefore we didn’t know …Read More

November 5, 2015 birth family, November 2015 Feature - Embracing Their Story, telling their life story 9 Comments

“Ma’am! Ma’am! You are forgetting your baby!!!” The Disney store clerk could not have been more panicked in her sincere guttural cry for this family to come back and retrieve their beautiful Asian daughter that they had so clumsily left behind. Just as primal was the sound that came from my throat as I realized …Read More

November 3, 2015 birth family, Jennifer, November 2015 Feature - Embracing Their Story 0 Comments

I think you can have all the plans in the world about how you are going to talk to your child about their adoption and the truth is, when they are ready to talk, you have to just go where they go. And fast. I’ve come to think about it like a child who has …Read More