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Originally Posted By Laurie

I was wondering if anyone's biological children expressed how they felt after the adoption. I have a 6yr old son and we are looking into adopting a 4 or 5 yr old daughter (maybe son). He is really excited about it. HOwever after it is done and this child with problems comes in our home and needs thereapy ect., how he will be feeling/ Also wondering how to explain to him about the "special need children" (these are older children who may not have birth defects ect, but have attachment, some are abused ect) in their past.

Any one out there have any of this sort of experience.
Glad to hear from you . Thank you

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Originally Posted By JP

We've come through this and survived. Yes, there were many difficult times when we really wondered what we had done to our children. We had three home grown children when we added a special needs child to the family. After the initial excitement the real work begins. There is a lot of work involved in integrating a new family member and making things fit together. There were many rough spots where we all thought we had done a crazy thing. Two years later the dust has settled and all of the things that were major adjustments are past. The adopted child is a sibling to the others and we have no regrets. It did take that long though to really feel great. It took that long to really feel like she was ours to parent. It took that long to really understand what we had taken on medically and financially. We are ready to do it again.

Read everthing you can about adopting older children and foster children. There are a lot of good books out there that helped us keep our perspective though the adjustment time.

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Originally Posted By Beth

We adopted a girl (8) who is one year older than our youngest daughter. Since our youngest was involved in the adoption process from the beginning there have been no problems with her adjusting. They have bonded extremely well and think its great to have a 24 hour playmate. We do hit rough spots at times and have to explain to our youngest why her sister does or says things not appropriate for an 8 year old. Our adopted daughter does have learning difficulties and emotional problems. We take it one day at a time, one question at a time. Overall it has been a very positive experience.

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Originally Posted By Judy Dixon

We adopted a son after having four birth children. The four older children were wonderful. They took this child into their hearts and under their wings....


Later in life, the adopted child had many problems, and the older siblings stood by him in every way.

For us, it was good.

[Archive]

Originally Posted By maureen

It is a gift to all your children.....what a wonderful lesson for all.