I highly recommend this book....

The last time we perused the bookstore shelves I ran across a book called Twenty Things Adopted Kids Wish Their Adoptive Parents Knew, written by Sherrie Eldridge.  Keeping in mind the fact that I'm only 14% of the way through the book (according to the Kindle app on my iPad), I'm already experiencing face-palm moments.  She uses her own experiences as an adoptee, as well as experiences of others she has interviewed, to explain the feelings of loss that a child who is adopted may experience.  To be honest, we had talked about knowing that our children will more than likely have abandonment issues and trust issues stemming from whatever their experiences have been with their birth families and in the foster care system, but never once did it cross my mind that there may be feelings of loss.  DUH!  Like I said, major face-palm moments.  

Given this new realization, I feel much more confident in my ability to parent a child who is grieving the loss of their birth family.  Grief and loss are emotions that I know quite well after my mom died when I was 14 (followed by my aunt when I was 17, my great-aunt when I was 18, and my grandmother when I was 21 (not that I'm keeping track!)).  Point is, I understand that kind of loss.  Death is different than separation, but now I know to look for the grief and make sure to include our child's history in our family.  Once I'm done reading the book, Mama S is going to read it.  She may not have quite as many face-palm moments as I do (I was informed tonight that she had already considered what I had overlooked), but I think it's wise for ANY adoptive family to read.  After reading the book, I definitely can't wait to start incorporating the traditions of our children into our family!  

After all this self-discovery, I also recognize that we have 10 (yes, 10!) more days until we start MAPP classes!!! Let the count down begin!