I wanted to write from the point-of-view of a parent able to adopt a child

I was blessed with a beautiful daughter through the gift of adoption. After reading through many of the adoption stories written by the adoptee or the bio parent, I wanted to write one from the parent able to adopt a child.

I had two biological boys and we decided to try for one more. Over a period of several years, we ended up loosing 5 babies to miscarriage, and decided that this will not be an option to complete our family. We had talked about adoption before and decided to go ahead after the 5th loss.

Things went incredibly fast, and 6 weeks later I was in the hospital watching the birth of my incredible daughter. She was 7 weeks early, and I had the amazing opportunity to stay in the hospital with her for 17 days until she was strong enough to come home with me.

My baby was addicted to cocaine at birth, and watching her go through withdrawals was absolutely horrible.

I spent most of my time during those first early days sitting in the hospital recliner with her on my chest. She was a fighter, though, and when we finally got home, she got stronger much faster.

With lots of dedication from my end, I was able to breastfeed her for 19 months, almost exclusively once my milk came in.

We were told to talk to our daughter a lot about her adoption, but having had 2 biological sons, it just didn't feel right. We don't tell them on a daily basis how they were conceived, so it just didn't feel right to point the adoption out...

My daughter is now 6 years old, and about to finish Kindergarten. While we were told to be prepared for learning disabilities due to her hard start, I am proud to say she is smart as a button, absolutely amazing to watch and very loved.

She knows she didn't grow up in my belly, that I was there when she was born, and that she was always supposed to be my baby, she just couldn't grow up in my belly. For now, that's it. I am sure she will ask more questions at some point, but for now, that's all she wanted to know.

Initially, I was amazed at some of the stupid things people say ("the other two are your real children?"), but over time, the fact she was adopted doesn't matter. She is my daughter, her brother's sister, and my husbands baby girl, and it wouldn't be any different if we had biologically created her our self.

I often watch her being her happy self and wonder what her life would have been like if her biologically mother hadn't made the choice to let her have a better life than she was able to provide. I believe neither her nor my life would be as happy.