Crazy Little Thing Called "Love"

Photo belongs to Trisha

This month is National Adoption Month.

Adrianna--who faithfully monitors the holiday calendar--reminded me this afternoon that it is, in fact, time to celebrate adoption. And I am excited to do so. This month marks the 20th month that my husband and I have been in the process of bringing our son home. So adoption is very close to my heart.

(Sometimes I think--if the doctor held a stethoscope up to my heart--he would hear the faint whisper of "adoption. adoption. adoption." Though he would likely just give me a stress test and send me home!)

Every Monday this month, I will share something about adoption. Or perhaps I will round up others who can participate.

Based on some of your e-mails to me and the plethora of adoption-related questions you have sent my way, here are 5 random things I'll share about adoption:

1. My brother and I were adopted. (Consequently, when my brother was little, he told people he wasn't born--he was adopted.)
2. Polls show that 58 percent of Americans have a personal connection to adoption.
3. Only 2 percent of children adopted in the U.S. are infants. The average age of a waiting child is 8 years old.
4. There are 423,773 children in the U.S. foster care system. (My brother and I had fantastic foster parents!)
5. When I was a kid, I used to tell my brother it was a buy-one-get-one-free sale. I laughed. He didn't. But we've been best friends since childhood.

You can put a price on adoption, but you can't put a price on family.