What Is Family?

As my wife and I continue our journey towards adopting a child, one thing that we are hoping for is that the birth parents will become part of our extended family. Since we moved to Oregon eighteen years ago our extended family has continued to grow. This was due to very little of my wife's family living here at that time which was only her sister and none of mine. Being the social butterflies that we are, we quickly found new friends that we became very close with. People who were more than friends, friends who became our family.

I have commonly stated that if you come over to our house for Thanksgiving you are now a member of our family. Over the years we have grown our family with our close friends for holidays and gatherings. It seems so natural to be with our added family that sometimes you have to think if there is a traditional bond such as blood or marriage? And then you realize that it doesn't matter. Your family is who you choose to be with.

When I found out what open adoption was I realized that this is what we have been doing for years. Adding people to our family who we're not traditionally related to us is not a alien concept. So when asked by the adoption agency, will there be a problem with having people not related to you become part of your family? My answer was that I have been practicing open adoption long before I even knew I was doing it.

Since we will have an open adoption, adding more people to our extended family is not going to be a problem. In fact I embrace it, just means I can get a bigger turkey for Thanksgiving!