Mummy, am I adopted? Part Three

Part Three

“Whether your children are yours through biology or adoption, they are yours through love.”
– Sadia Rebecca Rodriguez

New BEGINNINGS

The first few months were a steep learning curve and at times very hard. We had lots of fabulous friends but it was still hard. A couple of weeks after Katja came home, Cathy’s colleagues from AAS threw a shower party to welcome Katja to the AAS family. We were truly touched by the kindness shown by all our friends in Sofia. Within a few weeks we were getting into the swing of things. Learning from our mistakes and making new mistakes just like any new parent.

Us in 2015

Singing Sand Dunes – Qatar

We left Bulgaria in 2013 and moved back to live in Spain. In August 2014 we moved to Qatar. Katja is growing up as a very sociable and well traveled little girl. She loves school and has plenty of friends. She is also a very well traveled little girl. So far she has been in Bulgaria, UK, Spain, Qatar, Australia and Sri Lanka.
Having carried out considerable research, we have always thought it would be best to introduce the concept of adoption from an early age. We have specialist books written for children as stories regarding adoption and as a soft introduction to the concept of “Tummy Mummies” and forever families. We believe that the less of a “taboo” the whole adoption thing is, the better. It means that she can grow up knowing the truth with information being given as she asks. She’s a very inquisitive little girl so we have no doubt there will be many questions along the way, sadly, many of which we are unable to answer as we simply don’t know the answers.

Mummy, am I adopted? 

As I started on part one when Katja asked us whether she had been adopted. We arrived home, all had a shower, made a cup of hot chocolate (her favourite) and sat down to have a family chat. We explained it in very simple terms. We are glad she asked, why it happened at some random unexpected moment? We have no idea, however, it opened the door for us to get the ball rolling so to speak. She knew about the concept of adoption already which helped. Every day we see her grow that little bit more and more, we knew this was a conversation which was looming but we were waiting for the right time, her having asked was a sign to say, yup, go right ahead! We don’t want her to grow up believing one thing and later on in life to find out the truth and destroy all she had based her confidence in, I think it would potentially destroy or damage our relationship if we either left it until later on in life or not at all. As adoptive parents who see Katja as our daughter it is also hard to explain this as all we want is fer to grow as a confident little girl just like any other kid, who cares about the biological bit?
What does the future hold? In as many words….I have no idea, we know the development process and we know some of the things that will come up, we will try and keep one step ahead of things (easier said than done) and answer questions as they come up.

Our link to Bulgaria will always be there……..

If you are reading this and are interested in finding out more about adotpion and would like to have a chat; please feel free to send me an e-mail mike.decoster@yahoo.co.uk