September 26, 2017
Keeping Your Mind Open
Adoption! What a blessing. What an exhausting mess of emotions. What a gift. What a giant ball of stress. It is amazing how one thing can elicit such a diverse range of feelings, isn’t it?
When you first approach the idea of adoption, it can be hard to level your expectations. Our initial dreams of becoming parents are often rooted in…perfection. Everything goes the way it should, we become the parents of healthy, happy children who grow up to love us unconditionally and to do all the right things. No matter how you become a family, the chances of everything working out perfectly and exactly how you envisioned it is…unlikely at best.
Today we want to talk to you about keeping your mind and heart open throughout your adoption process. And that means relieving yourself of expectations about what your process, or your new family, HAS to be, and allowing yourself to expand into everything and anything the process naturally becomes.
It’s true. Your adoption journey may looking nothing like what you anticipated. You may become the parents of a child who doesn’t look, act, or think anything like you imagined. You may gain family members you never thought you’d have, or become a parent unlike one you ever expected. And all of that is wonderful, and meant to be.
When we close ourselves off into a box sealed by our expectations, we don’t see the potential of what could be. We say no to opportunities we haven’t even explored. We determine that something isn’t right for us before we even have a chance to experience it. We turn something down before even knowing what it could be. And that’s such a shame.
So as you’re going through your process, identify what scares you. What makes you feel uncomfortable, or nervous, or unsure. Write it down. Articulate it. Put it out there. And then release it. Get rid of it. Clear your mind of what you think this process should be, and allow yourself to be open to whatever happens.
Your gut and intuition are so strong. They will tell you when something is right. Don’t shut down that impulse before it has a chance to work in your favor.
