10 Reasons Why I Love That We Adopted Older Children

1.We get to share interests. Clothes/style, cars, art, crafts, reading (the kids and I read the same novel at the same time), skateboarding, snowboarding, cooking, photography, and so much more.




2. It was so easy to talk about the emotions the kids were feeling during the first few months of being adopted. If they seemed sad I could tell them I see that they are down and we could talk about why they were feeling this way. Sometimes they didn't fully understand why they felt the way they did but after talking it helped so much. Communication on an older deeper level in this process has been the biggest blessing.

-first family photo from the day we told A and Big C that we were adopting them, 2010


3. We get to bond together through older activities. Biking, going for walks, participating in marathons, water fights, watching movies (and cuddling), camping, playing board games/playing cards, wresting, gardening, geocatching, etc.




4. Talking about God and what he is doing in our lives. This I have to say is my favorite part of having older kids. They are developing their own personal relationship with Christ and it is so cool to hear how God is speaking and moving in their lives every day.

-photo by Jennifer Veitch Photography 2012


5. We get to joke around and enjoy our uniqueness as a family. The fact that the twins are adopted isn’t something odd to talk about and they even have a little fun with it sometimes.

-photos by VPhotographic 2012





6. Parent/Child dates! Going to the movies, going to the race track, going to a fashion show, tea parties, going on a full day snowboarding trip, etc.

-going to dinner and a movie for a Dad/Daughter date


7. Being able to connect and get to know a whole new group of parents. If we hadn't adopted we would have probably connected more with young parents of toddlers and newborns due to the fact that would have been all the kids we would have had right now. But because of our older children we have been thrown into a group of parents with older kids, most being 10-15 years older than ourselves (average birthing age is 33 in Canada). We have been blessed to learn and bond with some really amazing people.

-our lifegroup


8. My kids come with a past and that means they come with their own relationships from that past. It is surprisingly a huge blessing. We have met and been supported by people we would have never been close to if it wasn't for their bond with our children.

-foster-parent on far left, 3 in the middle all Social Workers who blessed us, A and I on right on A and Big C's Forever Day. 2010


9. I always get asked how well the kids know their biological parents and if it bothers me if they do. They do know their biological mom fairly well and don’t know their biological father. To be honest I love that they know their biological mom so well; it’s the biological father that can be the issue at times. When they don’t have anything to go off of, they go off of fantasy and as much as we try to root them in what we do know , it is hard to grasp when there is a “could be” present. We get to talk about how she looks, what kinds of things she enjoys and some memories. Although she isn't present in there lives she is a big part of how they came to be ours.




10. Just being a part of God’s BIG plan is amazing. When we look through both our pasts and the twin’s we see how God inter-weaved our lives, how from human choices he devised something beautiful knowing the ultimate plan and set forth to prepare Jon and I way before we even had any idea. How he made each of our kids so unique but yet perfect for us, for our family.


-the first time we ever took the kids out in 2008


-four years later, now apart of my family FOREVER :)