[GCS]

My MIL was the only one who was very negative and against the adoptions. It wasn't enough for her to give us her "professional" opinion as she was a pediatric nurse for 25 years many years early (and had no experience with IA), she had to try and poison the well to everyone else she met.

She made sure to deliver every negative article about IA adoption to us in front of other family members so she could again remind us how serious FAS was. Really, like she could know more about FAS from reading a Chicago Tribune article than we did with all our research. After 6 months of this I just tossed the articles and didn't even respond to her. There was even one waiting for us when we got home from trip two with our children. She had set it with our mail.

When we received our referrals, she took one look at Sam's picture and set it down saying "you never know what physcological problems he is going to have". I have never forgotten this.

Today she is on board and acts like she always was. I know that when we go back for numbers 3&4 she will be at it again. She really believes we just got lucky. There's no educating people who dont want to listen to reason.

Other than her, everyone we have talked to has been incredibly wonderful and onboard. We get the "Why Russia" and "Why not domestic" all the time still, but it seems that people are just trying to understand a system they are not a part of. It's usually harmless.

Christina