Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Quotes That Bring Me Comfort

In my quest to not totally lose it today, I just googled "quotes on patience during adoption" (whatever did we do without the Internet?) and here's what I found (with my favorite passages in italics):
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Our children are not ours because they share our genes...they are ours because we have had the audacity to envision them. That, at the end of the day...or long sleepless night...is how love really works.
-Unknown
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Not flesh of my flesh, Nor bone of my bone,
But still miraculously my own.
Never forget for a single minute,
You didn't grow under my heart--but in it
-Fleur Conkling Heylinger
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And here's a great primer on the "real" definition of those words that are innocently (but mistakenly) used by so many well-meaning people in the presence of us adoptive parents (please think before you speak, as these terms really hurt, even if you don't mean to hurt us!):

Natural Child: Any child who is not artificial.
Real Parent: Any parent who is not imaginary.
Your Own Child: Any child who is not someone else's child.
Adopted Child: A natural child, with a real parent, who is all my own.
-Rita Laws
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The Gift of Life
I didn't give you the gift of life,
But in my heart I know.
The love I feel is deep and real,
As if it had been so.


For us to have each other
Is like a dream come true.
No, I didn't give you
the gift of life:
Life gave me the gift of you.-Unknown
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How Could You Know?
As you lay sleeping far away as still as you could be...
How could you know the joy today this photo brings to me?

A few short weeks and you'll be mine, and "I" will soon be "We."
How could you know the love I feel? It's something you can't see.

So have sweet dreams, my precious babe. Sleep well and tenderly.
Some say that you're the lucky one. How could you know it's me?
-Kris Laughlin

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