Adoption Insights From Jamie Lee Curtis

Picture found here: http://celebritybabies.people.com/2009/12/18/jamie-lee-curtis-and-kids-arrive-for-avatar/

Lately my celebrity crushes have been on celebrities who've adopted. Recent mentions are Sandra Bullock and Mariska Hargitay. My latest celebrity crush is Jamie Lee Curtis. I had no idea she had adopted her kids until I saw a list of notable adoptive parents. There's not a lot of press on Jamie Lee and Christopher Guest's adoptive kids, and I respect that. After all, celebrities are people too (well, some of them). But I did find this quote on adoption from Jamie Lee Curtis' interview in Parents magazine that extracts the romanticism right out of adoption and injects the process with reality:


"Adoption is a very complicated road filled with incredibly emotional and challenging aspects. At its core, adoption is about loss. It’s one that needs a lot of good support for everybody, so that everyone is clear about the feelings that are being stirred up for everyone. Birthdays, for instance, are very hard for adopted children. For everyone else it’s a celebration of the moment of birth, but for adopted children, it’s the remembrance of a birth family that they don’t have. So it’s complicated terrain but still a beautiful way to make a family. You have to just be really open to all sides of it." Read more here. 


Jamie Lee really gets to the heart of it. We've been on this journey for a long time. Some days it feels like we'll never become parents. But when you consider everyone involved - from the hopeful adoptive parents to the birth parents to the adoptive children - you can understand why it takes so long ... and why it really should take so long to adopt. Adoption is a process that happens over time, an unfolding of emotions and a willingness on the part of all parties to be authentic with their choices in life. I think it will be totally worth it. 


As Robert always says, "Life is no dress rehearsal." Why dip your toes in the shallow end when there's an entire Olympic-sized pool full of lovely blue water waiting for you to dive in.