Adopting Can Be Scary | New Article on Adoption.com

So, if you know me in real life, you know part of this story: I was terrified to adopt. The whole process seemed so daunting. I would say things like "We'd love to adopt in the future, when we're a little more grown-up." 

Come to think of it, as upset as 23-year-old-infertile-me got at doctors not taking me seriously (I was continuously given the "You're young, just be patient" speech), I didn't take myself terribly seriously. 

I just had an epiphany, folks. 

I'm glad we were all here to see it happen. 

But yes. I was scared. It is scary to jump into the unknown, no question. 

Here are some thought up on adoption.com today about how I finally moved beyond that. 

"If I got bold and decided to talk about adoption with my husband (who, by the way, always replied with an emphatic, “Absolutely, I am interested in this. How would you like to get started?” and is maybe the most patient man alive), I almost immediately followed with conditions to be met before we even started looking into it—things like re-sodding the backyard, and getting a few raises under our belts, and convincing my parents to move closer to us.

If I allowed myself to peruse options online, I was quickly overwhelmed and gave up.

I often recapped the many ways I was a failure: Not only could I not carry a baby myself, but I wasn’t strong enough to continue with fertility treatments. I wasn’t brave enough (or organized enough, or wealthy enough, or enough of numerous other things) to consider adoption, and I felt guilty because I knew I was terribly caught up in my own temporary struggles, but I couldn’t figure out how not to be. My world was small and kind of sad, for a time.

This perpetuated until one day I stumbled upon a website devoted to kids waiting to be adopted, and I recognized that I couldn’t even fathom the fear of not having a safe, loving, permanent place in a family to call mine."

Read the rest here, and if you'd like, leave a comment. What scares you about adoption? If you have adopted, what gave you courage through the process?