Life happens fast. Sometimes you have the ability to change your life and sometimes life changes you. Separating from a spouse can be a decision you’ve mulled over and can anticipate the changes that follow. Then there are other events, like death within the family, where life comes at you fast and you’re not able to anticipate or prepare for what follows.
“Surprise Adoption” has all of the above, and more, including a spoiler in the title. But I don’t want to make it seem like this is a depressing story, because it’s quite the opposite. It’s heavy, but uplifting. Our confessor is very open about her life over the last few years, and shares details without an ounce of insecurity, probably something that comes over time through healthy conversations with your therapist and being content with your current situation. And content she is.
I don’t have children, so I have zero idea what it feels like to be a parent (quite the opposite in fact). And as a 30 year old myself, I can’t imagine what it would be like to wake up tomorrow with two teenage kids. This confession reminds me that being a parent can be an incredibly rewarding feeling. Our confessor’s tone emotes how blessed she feels for the life events that happened to her. I’m sure it’s not all sunshine and rainbows being a single mother of two kids that aren’t your biological children and you didn’t “choose” to adopt, but I’d feel the love if I were one of the kids listening to this confession.
Our booth at the Mish collected a ton of great confessions during the time it was there (more news on that coming soon), but this has to be one of my favorites. Like many confessions, I’d love to follow up with our confessor and just check in. I want to turn on the tube so I can see where the kids are and how the new mom is doing, like the Truman Show. I’ll leave that up to my happy imagination.
I’ll leave you with a couple of interesting adoption statistics from Adoption Network and the U.S. Department of State.
Approximately 1 out of 25 U.S. families with children have adopted.
Around 5 million Americans are adopted.
It’s estimated that 2-4% of Americans have adopted, and more than a third have considered it.
In the last twenty years, international adoptions by U.S. families peaked in 2004 with close to 23,000 adoptions, and declined since with only 1,275 in 2023.
Follow these links below for more information and the stats mentioned above.
Adoption Statistics from Adoption Network
Adoption Statistics from U.S. Department of State - Bureau of Consular Affairs
Hope everyone enjoyed the holidays!
Cheers,
Tate
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