The Advantages of an Adoptive Mother

Everyday (ok, sometimes more than once a day) I stalk lots of other blogs out there (in case you haven't noticed, my list of cool blogs has gotten longer and longer) and don't really know others' reasons for adopting, but thought I would share a little of our story.  My husband Cory and I were married almost 16 years ago and started trying to get pregnant a few years later.  I was always plagued with many female problems (specifically endometriosis) and never was able to get pregnant.  We tried all sorts of infertility treatments (including standing on my head)...pretty much everything short of IVF. No doctor ever told me that I WOULDN'T get pregnant, but we pretty much figured that out on our own after a decade of "trying."  I'm just considered one of those "unexplained infertility" cases.  

Yeah, there were times when I felt upset - probably frustrated is more like it, but I never felt desperate or depressed about the inability to conceive.   IVF was certainly an option, but never a guarantee.  We had a hard time justifying spending tens of thousands of dollars on infertility treatments with no guarantee of a baby.  I had always admired multi-cultural families and jumped on the opportunity to adopt as soon as Cory was on board.  I've seen many girlfriends get pregnant over the years and have made mental notes of the advantages I see to being an adoptive mother.  I finally decided to put those notes into a list.  These are the crazy things I've been carrying in my head (not necessarily in any particular order of importance):

1.  Since I will not be breast-feeding, I won't be the only one getting up at 2AM to feed the baby. :)

2.  I've been exercising like crazy lately and sleeping like a log and am happy with the fact that I will most likely be in the best shape of my life by the time our little girl comes.  This will make it much easier to cart around all that baby crap and handle the stresses of a new baby.  And of course there's nothing wrong with looking GOOD!  :)

3.  Because of the above, I'll not have any post-baby weight to lose and can just work on (hopefully) continuing with my mad exercise routine.  I'm sure the sleep will have to go...

4.  Baby Zeltins will already be several months old which means that much less poop in my life, and not as much junk to buy.  Not that shopping isn't fun.  :)

5.  Giving an orphan a chance at a plentiful life in a beautiful place like Oregon is more rewarding than I think I can comprehend.

6.  We get the opportunity to visit an amazing country that we most likely would not travel to otherwise.

7.  We get to add to the culture (or unculture) of Central Oregon.  :)

8.  I'm gonna keep this list open because I just KNOW there's more where that came from, but it's 10:00 and my eyes are weary.  :)  Nighty nite!

~ lisa