[ocracoke]

As an adult adoptee I feel so completely lucky that I was raised by the people I was raised by. It is not that I was adopted but that I some how ended up in the family I was meant to have. However, I do not want anybody telling me that I should feel lucky. I clearly remember as a kid "how lucky you are" to have been adopted. And I hated it. I mean why was I "lucky" to have found my parents through adoption but all my friends were not "lucky" to have found theirs through birth?

I adopted my daughter for purely selfish reasons. I wanted to be a mom! Plain and simple. And even more selfish -- I didn't want to give birth. For me, becoming a parent had nothing to do with charity, it was all about me. Becoming a parent is selfish, being a parent is selfless. My daughter is not a charity case, and I think I can safely say that as she openly defies me at every request (she is 3 years old) that she certainly doesn't feel like a charity case either.

Samantha