Why adoption?

I've gotten this question more than I had anticipated. I've asked myself time and time again this very same question. Why adoption?? I'm a fertile young woman. I've done it before and neither pregnancy nor labor were difficult. . . why adopt??

If the answer was so easy as perhaps I would have a come-back already ready for those that ask me. Yet that is far from the truth. I don't know why. I just feel that it's right. The seed was planted many years ago when my brother was thinking of putting his children up for adoption. I considered taking them... then I spoke to my husband LOL... reality set in...(luckily he was talked into keeping his kids). But now, it's almost impossible (to say the least) to shake off. I have tried, believe me! However, I look at my son and think that he deserves a sibling... he deserves someone to play with, to share with, to talk to in his own house. He gets so sad when he and his friends have to part ways. He cried for hours when my husband's niece came for a visit and then left after 3 days and asked for her for days thereafter. He loves being around children his age (and sometimes older)... the joy in his eyes and his smile are indescribable.

Then I remember my own childhood. Although not as joyous as I wish it were, it was still filled to the brim with happiness, for I had siblings. My mom had 4 children --2 boys and 2 girls and my dad and step mom had 2 girls. (My sister on my mom side and I have the same father... thus my dad had 4 girls). I remember the games we used to play with my stepmom and my 3 sisters;I remember the trips to the mountain and to Helen Ga just for the heck of it. I remember playing baseball, kickball, hide and go seek with my brothers and the neighborhood kids. I remember getting whippings (we called it whoopings in the South. LOL!) as a group because one or two of us (mainly my knuckle-headed brothers) would always get into some kinds of trouble. I remember that my sibling relationship was the most valuable part of my childhood. We stuck together (and still do for the most part) through the good time and the bad. We were each other's best friends (to some extent). That's what I want for my son.... the joy of having someone to fight with, to play games with, to run after, to take trips with, to be there when he says "you remember when we. .." But these things do not really justify adopting.

I am also reminded that I was adopted twice, albeit not formally. When my dad remarried, his wife took my sister and I in. She treated us like her own children. She helped feed us, cloth us, mold us into the peopled we are (along of course with my mother) She, in part adopted us. I suspect she didn't have to do the things that she did; she chose to do so. As a Christian I am also adopted by God through his son Jesus Christ. So my ties to adoption run deep yet some will still argue that is not enough.

To give birth to a child is the most beautiful gift god has given yet that does not in turn make you a parent. To give life along with shelter, love, support, money, and the opportunity at success makes you a parent. Both birth and adoption would give me the opportunity to again love and support one of God's most precious creatures.... however to parent a child that is parent less would be the most selfless thing I could do in this world.

Yet that still is not enough. This question, why adopt, deserves an answer yet I haven't one to give. Perhaps the words within my home page picture may suffice:

One hundred years from now
It will not matter
What kind of car I drove,
What kind of house I lived in,
How much I had in my bank
Nor what my clothes looked like.
But the world may be ...
a little better because...
I was important in the life of a child.
Source:Forest Witcraft, "Within My Power", (adapted)

My quest continues. . .