It's Not Any Easier

Sometimes, people--even well-meaning ones--outside adoption circles joke that people who adopt "have it easy." No labor or stretch marks. No morning sickness or swollen ankles. Just a pile of paperwork and BAM! you have a child. People--highly educated people--who have adopted sometimes presume that becoming pregnant can be as easy as just thinking about it and BAM! another child.

Having been on both sides of welcoming a child into our home, let me say this: neither side has it any easier. It simply takes a ride on the roller-coaster of infertility or pulling up the old bootstraps and persevering in the face of the ever-changing bureaucracy which is the hallmark of adoption to know this. And for a parent who has lost a child, even one they have never held in their arms, the hurt and ache and emptiness is still the same.

In the midst of our celebrating, we continue to pray for those families (yes, there were a few) in our group whose cases did not pass court yesterday and for all families who long for the joy that a new child brings--regardless of their means of arrival.