You may be reading this blog because you have adopted a child and life is settling down and you may be thing about the future. You may have questions like When do I tell my child that he or she is adopted? How will he or she feel about adoption? When do I give him or her more information? What will he or she want to know from me? How can I help my child feel comfortable about adoption? As hopeful perspective adoptive parents, I know that my husband and I have some of these very questions. I have given great thought to them and being adopted myself I thought I could give some insight to other adoptive parents.

I truly believe that no matter when a child is adopted, whether it is as an infant, an older child, healthy or have special needs, adoption is going to influence them in some ways. It may be separations, loss, anger, grief, identity, or expressing themselves as they grow up. Some of the issues may be obvious and some may surface at different or specific times in their lives

I think it is important as a parent to understand how a child behaves and why. This will help us at least as parents to be supportive and hopefully will one day help a child placed with us to grow up with healthy self esteem and the knowledge that he or she is loved.

I think we all know that there are different stages of development in children depending on their age and that each child’s development may vary or differ significantly. Some children may progress more quickly from one state to another and others may take longer than you expected.

My husband and I are pursuing an infant domestic adoption so in this case I think that in the first two years of life it is important to let the child bond, and learn to trust us as parents in the same way that a child born to us would.