Adopting An Older Child

The second set of pictures I received in the fall of 2008. I also received a DVD where he recites a fairy tale in Hindi and sings a little Bollywood song. The purple sweater you see on the left is the same sweater that the other little boy was wearing in the pictures that Katie had sent me when I first inquired about the children waiting for a family. That little boy has a family now and I really hope I get to see him when we travel to India because I will always think about him and how he is doing.

When thinking about adopting for a second time, I automatically thought about adopting as young as possible. Once Vietnam fell through, I readjusted my thinking about the age of a child at time of adoption and felt that I wanted to adopt an older child. Several reasons led me to this decision. First of all, there are so many waiting children on lists that are waiting to find a family. I also was so happy that I got to experience all of the "baby" experiences such as bottle feeding, baby food, diapers, crawling, etc and yet I didn't feel the need to do that all over again. If I hadn't experienced it once I think I may have felt I was missing out on something but there were many stages that once they were over, I was glad! Diapers being the number one experience I don't feel the need to repeat! This may sound silly, but I am also glad I"m not having to deal with a diaper bag, and sippy cups, and packing bibs and all that stuff. Now I'll be dealing with a "let's keep you occupied bag" that will be filled with cars, crayons, and other busy work!

Going into a second adoption, I didn't have a set thought as to an age, country, etc, I just knew when he found me that he was my son.

Isn't it funny the road that life takes you? With Regan, I knew from the time I was nineteen that I wanted to adopt a little girl from China. Beyond that, I had no idea that just a couple of years later I would be adopting a little boy her same age from India. Life is an amazing journey!