[HBV]

I know this issue has come up on here before. As H gets older, I am starting to think more about what we say to others about adoption. We have a very open adoption, we're happy with our situation, and I don't mind when people ask questions about adoption. Our plan is to talk about it with H from the beginning. Here's my question, though: H is a really beautiful, very engaging baby----everywhere we go people stop what they are doing and come talk to us about how beautiful he is. Purely coincidentally, his coloring is similar to ours and in fact he does look as though he could be our biological child.

Most of the time, with strangers, I just say thank you when they pay him a compliment, or "do you think so?" when they say he looks like one or the other of us. I am not at all trying to hide the fact that he's adopted, but I just don't see why I need to volunteer information to relative strangers. My husband, on the other hand, is so excited about the baby, the adoption's finalization, and everything about parenting, that he is often quick to volunteer to people that H is adopted. I doubt that it makes much difference right now (since H can't talk yet!) but I want to give H the opportunity to decide how and whether to share his story.

I'm guessing I'm not the only one that's experienced this. For those of you with slightly older children with physical features that don't provide obvious clues to the contrary, do you volunteer the fact that your child was adopted to acquaintances or others? Did you change that practice as the child got older?