by Peg Lewis

Created on: July 16, 2008   Last Updated: September 10, 2008

Adoption - Some Challenges, Much Joy

While many couples feel that two children is more than they can successfully manage, others don't seem to be able to have enough children. They love each child, the interactions between their children, fun of having their children's friends visit - and deep inside they want more and more.

Of course practical limits put a curb on family size - unless the family decides that adoption is a viable option.

Adoption is not without its challenges. Each child brings his or her own baggage to the family, whether an infant or a teen. Heredity has its role, and then there are the environmental influences that can impact even a newborn.

For example, a baby may be born addicted to drugs, or with difficulties due to poor maternal nutrition. Its first few months may have been highly stressful. Older children have a whole personal history that they will carry with them, and it can't have been all good or they would still be happily playing with blocks in their birth-family's loving home.

None of these issues is completely daunting to those few families who just don't seem to be able to have enough children! They are eager to give homes to children of whatever variety. It seems these homes have a lot of excess love they don't know what to do with, and only another child will help them solve their problem!

For the child who is being adopted into such a home, the excess of love is generally not a problem. Except for newborns adopted from the hospital or transition foster home, love is just what these children need. Having a handful of eager instant older siblings is not a bad thing for such a child!

A quick internet search will give plenty of evidence of children in need of a home right here in North America! One of many examples is http://adoptuskids.org. These children have in many cases been waiting for a lifetime to become part of a permanent loving family, and often they come in sibling groups, two or three or more children who want to be adopted together.

Other children come from abroad, from any number of different countries, such as those listed at http://photolisting.adoption.com/international.

The supply of needy children is not the problem! Supply far exceeds demand. Families that are willing to take on another child or two, whatever their problems, are of course in short supply. But such families do exist!

I'll call her Heather. She and her husband have 3 children born to their marriage, and have added another 18...and counting. Some were

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