Saturday was the regional families supporting adoption conference. It was actually the whole weekend, but I was only able to attend some of Saturday. Kyle couldn't come so I had my mom come (she is always so supportive and is fun to be with).
The first class was about nurturing relationships made from adoption. It was co-taught by a adoptive mom and a birth mom. The next class was my favorite. It was all about managing the stress of being the "perfect parent". She was very educated and such a good teacher and on top of that she is an adoptive mom. She talked about how parenting is already overwhelming when you have societies expectations looming over you, but on top of that you have a birth family that may have expectations as well. She said that we need to realize that our children will just be who they are and we need to let them be. Just because you adopted them does not make you any better of a parent or more prepared than others. Anyway I can't even sum up how much I learned from her class.
Last there was a keynote address by Megan Johnson. Visit her website to learn more about her. She had an accident that caused her to become a wheelchair bound for the rest of her life. She is a speaker who motivates people with her positive attitude about life. She was so funny and inspiring. She talked about how sometimes we have this vision for how our life will turn out and almost always it turns out different than we dreamed, it's even better.
Things I learned: I don't need to be so consumed with being perfect (the perfect mom, wife, employee, friend) I just need to do the best I can do with what I have.
I am so grateful for how different my life is than I always dreamed it would be. I absolutely LOVE my life and the experiences I have been through have made me the person I am today! I would never trade that in!
I learned more about open adoption and how much your family can grow from it.
I learned that adoptive parents that still mourn their infertility are more likely to raise adopted children that have issues with poor self esteem and identity problems.
The most awesome part of our adoption journey so far is that there are so many opportunities in the adoption community to learn and get educated about not only adoption, but for life. There should be conferences like these just for parenting or life in general!
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