Author: Louanne

Soapbox alert!!!!

Something that obviously annoys me is if I hear comments made like the following (to me or any other adoptive parent):

• Don’t you want to have your OWN baby? (UM DUH – Nadia is my baby)
• You’ll never love her like you would your OWN baby. (Dream on. There is no possible way that I could love Nadia more if I gave birth to her. NO WAY, NO HOW)
• You’re not her REAL mom. (Here, come touch my arm. Am I an apparition? I feel pretty real)
• She’s not your REAL baby. (see above)
• I’m so sorry you can’t have your OWN children (this I hate because it’s always accompanied by a sorrowful look).

Okay, so you get the idea. Annoying and ignorant. Seriously. We chose to adopt rather than have a biological child. It doesn’t change that fact that we are parents and we love Nadia. She is our family and always will be. God just sent us halfway around the world to make us a family.

Now you may be wondering what got me all riled up about this. It’s a ridiculous contest that NBC is having for Mother’s Day (America’s Favorite Mom). You can vote for your favorite mom and they win a prize. A new category of MOM is featured daily. Here are the categories:

• The Military Mom
• The Working Mom
• The Chairman of Everything Mom
• The Single Mom
• The NON MOM Mom

So guess what the description of a Non-Mom Mom is? Grandmothers, Step Moms and ADOPTIVE Moms!!!! Look at the description for one of the nominees:

“She was an adopted child who is now mom to her own daughter, plus six adopted children who started life as ‘meth babies’. ” (emphasis mine)

Lame, lame, lame. Adopted kids aren’t any different. I seriously don’t know how I am going to react if something like this is said in front of Nadia when she is old enough to understand. Some moms just walk away because they feel it’s not important to educate ignorant people in front of the child – they feel it makes it more obvious to the child that they are being singled out. Some moms stand there and lay it on the line for people and make sure they know how tasteless and rude the comments are.

I guess it will all depend on what type child Nadia ends up being personality wise as she ages. Will she be feisty and say something herself? Or will she just want to get away? I don’t know, but this really is something I wish we could protect her from. Rant over.

We have been busy around here, but I wanted to post a couple of shots of the cute girl. She has turned her link-a-doos into bracelets these days. Also the tops of her old Nuby sippy cups. Last night when Mike came home she wanted on his shoulders and then to go look at herself in the mirror (it’s a regular routine for them). Once there she pointed at his glasses, then my glasses then pointed towards the kitchen and said, “Glasses.” I said, “Do you want yours?” And she nodded. So we added the glasses and I took a few photos. Once back in the living room she said, “Neck, neck” for her necklace and the outfit was complete. She cracks me up!!!

And here she is trying to walk with Mike’s slippers on. Way cute!

Many of you who read this blog also frequent www.chinaadopttalk.com. Today Nadia and I met up with some fellow adoptive moms from that website and their daughters at the Fort Worth Zoo. It was so fun to meet some people who have adoptive daughters and who went through the roller coaster that is China adoption like we did. For me it was also interesting because you find that everyone comes from such a different background and you never would have met them if you hadn’t adopted. We should have got a group shot with the moms too at the beginning before the girls got too tired, but I didn’t think of it.

I had a great time today and I am so glad that we were able to meet up with these ladies and meet their wonderful daughters. All 4 girls are from Jiangxi province too. By the way, the dress Nadia is wearing we got in Beijing when Kiki and went haggling at the Silk Market. It’s the first time we put her in it. Hi Kiki!

The zoo was jam packed today. From the time I exited University (forgot to take Forest Park – never will again though!) to the time I met them at the gate it was 40 minutes. A woman at the zoo told me that there was 61 bus loads of kids dropped off today and I believe it!! I have never seen so many people at the zoo, but we were still able to get around. I was so grateful that we had a membership so I didn’t have to stand in line for tickets!

The penguins were just being fed when we walked in, so that was cool. Nadia got to see them swim this time. Last time we went they were all huddled up in the corner and scared. Nadia liked the Elephants best this time. She got really excited when one of them started walking towards us. Then when it walked out of sight she practically tried to crawl up me to get a better view. We all had lunch together and then headed home because the girls were so tired! Nadia was asleep before we got to the freeway.