Families decide to adopt children based on many different factors, such as infertility, an interest in other cultures or humanitarian deed. Most families adopt because they want a child to raise and are willing to undergo mountains of paperwork and intense scrutiny to complete the process. Whether or not parents have a biological child following an adoption is a personal decision, based on physical ability and preference for the type of family they would like.
Adoption
Adoption is an act of bringing home a child who is not a biological son or daughter to raise as a family member. Adoptive children come from all types of backgrounds, from the child of a distant relative to someone born on the other side of the world. Parents care for adopted children in the same method as if they were a birth child, being given the same treatment, love, benefits and advantages as a biological son or daughter.
Connection
Many adoptions occur with an adoptive mother becoming pregnant either during the process or shortly after completion. JoAnne Solchany, R.N., PhD. of the University of Washington states that in 30 years of practice, she has seen many parents become pregnant after adopting a child, and suspects there is a connection. She believes that once couples have accepted they will not have a biological child and pursue adoption, they become more relaxed and conception is more likely to occur.
Motives
Some adoptive parents begin the process knowing that pregnancy often occurs after adoption. This implies that adoption is only a means to an end of getting what a family really wants: a biological child. The idea of pursuing adoption for these means cheapens the act and promotes adopted children as being second-best. According to the Resource for Families with Adopted Children, before beginning an adoption, couples should ask themselves why they want to adopt to examine their true motives to be sure what they want is in the best interest of the child they are adopting.
Significance
Because so many children need families, adoption is not only for families who do not have biological children. Likewise, parents are free to adopt a child as well as have a biological child later. Both situations previously caused difficulties with adoption agencies and many parents had to prove their infertility status and explain why they could not have biological children. These situations have changed, and in many circumstances, birthparents placing their child for adoption may be happy to know that their son or daughter will eventually have a sibling.
Considerations
Raising biological and adoptive children can be challenging for some parents who wonder if they will love their children equally. Christina Frank of Conceive Magazine states that parents relate differently to their children, whether biologically related or adopted, simply because of their different characteristics and personalities. For most parents, there is no difference in love between biological or adopted children and they are raised equally.
