An Epiphany

I may have passed an adoption milestone. Let me elaborate. We are a "mixed" adoptive family. Our oldest son is our biological child and our youngest is adopted. We recently had a referral to a pediatric pulmonologist for our youngest son. It's possible he may have asthma. As I was driving home from that appointment, I began to mull it all over in my mind. My first thought was, this is no big deal for us. My husband is an asthmatic, and I'm a respiratory therapist. This is something we all understand and can handle. My second thought was, that it made sense that the baby might have asthma since my husband has it. I carried on with my thoughts until all of a sudden I had a reality check................ it does not make sense for the baby to have asthma because my husband does. They don't share the same genes!

So for a moment I felt stupid for my lapse. Being the worrier that I am I began to panic that I had forgotten where he came from, and that if I didn't make it part of our daily conversations that he wouldn't feel comfortable about his adoption. (not that I would forget that - I feel it's very important) But then I realized that this is the way I ought to be feeling about my son. The fact that he's adopted shouldn't identify him or his place in our family. And it doesn't.

This child feels as much a part of me and my husband as our biological child is. I think that's the way it should be. He is our child. Momentarily forgetting that he isn't our biological child is a completely natural thing!

And then I felt very much at peace. I think our family is exactly as it should be.