Strangers

Entry One: Adopted

My seventh foster mom who happened to be a teacher at my school took us into her office one day.  I was eight at the time. She told us that we had a big decision to make: do we want to live with her family or our birth parents. My sister and I looked at each other, shocked. We couldn't believe the generous offer she had given us. It wasn't long before we looked at her and said we want to live with her. She started to cry tears of joy and gave us a huge hug. With what was happening in our home, we wouldn't have been safe and she was excited to be the one to provide a safe place for us to live.

It wasn't long before she told the rest of her family the news. When her older daughters found out that she wanted to adopt two little girls they were so excited to get two new little sisters. All they had was sisters. The rest of the family was thrilled as well. After that CPS was called and they were in complete agreement. But of course, the process took a long time.

The long anticipated day came a little over a month later. The whole family was so excited and celebrated by singing, playing, and dancing. After school we headed up to the court to be adopted by these parents. When we were all finished someone made a cupcake cake to celebrate for the adoption. The cake was amazing but the memories meant more to me than I could have ever understood at the time.

The next week was just as happy. It was my eighth birthday and the week after that it was my baptism. It was amazing to get baptized. I felt like all of my sins and mistakes were taken away. That finally I could start over with a completely new life. There were lots of  people went that I didn't know to my house for my party and while it was a little scary, I was grateful for their support. I got more gifts from that day that I had ever known before. To this day I still have them and will always appreciate the love I felt that night.The leftovers were also a nice touch.

Those first few days were great because we were in a real family were you knew that you were cared about and loved. As time passed with this family I knew that there was going to be trials, conflict, and arguments. But now I knew I wasn't alone and I didn't have to do everything by myself. When the older sisters left and I became the big sister I found myself taking all the anger, blame, and responsibility for problems. Ifs really hard and I hate getting yelled at almost all the time but that's part of life and being in any family. I hope it will get better when I move out.

Being adopted doesn't mean you are different from the other people around you but it his hard to embrace your new life at first. I always thought I was that different person and I don't belong anywhere or fit in anywhere. Don't let yourself think like that because that's not true I have the bestest friends that I could ever have. They support me and make me, me and that's why I love myself. I couldn't ask for better friends like what I have because they make me laugh. They give me a meaningful friendships and make me part of their life; something I didn't have anybody do for me before I was adopted.

Adopted means: legally take another's child and bring it up as one's own. That's what it means that means that the people that adopted care for you and love, feed, nurture, and do whatever to take care of you. If you don't like that try to look at it at a different angle. You'll find hidden opportunities and blessings. When I turned eighteen I didn't like how my parents were treating me. But I had to learn to live with it and ignore it. And I know that they will provide me more opportunities and love than my biological parents could have ever given me.