[BEBE]

Last year our DD asked "whose tummy was i in" when I was born in Guatemala. So I explained all of that. So fast foward to Wednesday, and she asked me if I had a picture of her birth mother. I told her yes and I showed it to her. (The only one we have is the photo copy of the DNA picture of her Birth mother holding her at the time of the DNA test) I asked her if she would like to put it in a frame & we went shopping and she picked one out. So now she has it in her room & she has been proudly showing it off to family members. She has been asking me "who do I look like?" So I am so thankful we had the photo of her birth mother.

But our 14 yr old BD is afraid she will want to leave us and go "back to live in Guatemala" and not "love us" anymore. My oldest seems to be having a hard time with it. I have explained to her that this is her sisters "roots" and it will be better for her if we handle this the way we are. Have any of you had this come up yet & how are you dealing with it?

[Mariais5]

We are very open with our girls and talk about their adoptions and birth families quite a bit. They have seen their birthmom's pictures and know they were born in Guatemala. At 2 1/2 and 4, I'm not sure how much they understand, but I do think this is the right approach.

We have older children who were adopted domestically, and we have open adoptions with their birth families.. Assure your daughter that although her sister may be interested in her birth family and where she came from, you all will always be her family. Our older children have all met their birth families and have an ongoing relationship with them. While there is a bond there and they are thankful to share their lives with them, it hasn't diminished their love for us.. They just have more people to love and receive love from. :-)

Also, it's pretty cool for us to see the personality traits that our children have inherited. It's amazing how your child can have the same mannerisms and habits as someone that they have never met! We also found out that a couple of our children are related to famous people, so building these relationships has really been exciting and fun for our family...

[Devora]

Are you wondering about how to handle the conversations and promote openness around adoption with your adopted child? Or are you asking about how to handle your other child's concerns?