I am the “Bio” Child. I never really thought of it like that or as child # 1, 2, 3 and so on. I just always thought of myself as the oldest child. When my mother told me that they were going to start doing foster care I was actually shocked. I thought that they were just a bit old to be taking on so much. Which I was around 19 at the time and thought if you were 40 you were elderly.
Anyways, now that I am 32 almost 33 and a mother of two wonderful girls myself, I now know this to not to be true. Anyways, every time I spoke with my mother on the phone she would mention a name I had not heard of in general conversation, not realizing I had no idea who that was. Later to find out it was another foster child. To make a long story short, I never really thought of my siblings as, “Oh, another foster child”, I thought of them as “ OH! Another brother.” You see, I soon came to realize that when they took another child into their home that they were there to stay. My mother could not and would not send them back. If no one else wanted them, she did. No matter the history.
My youngest brother is the most rotten. He is the baby and gets away with murder, as all youngest children do. He does not claim me as his sister. Not because he doesn’t think that I am his sister but because he is truly rotten and the only girls that he likes is mom. I love him anyways and would not have it any other way.
I love having a big family because for most of my child hood it was me and my first sister, Kati. She was adopted when I was 6 years old and her 4 months old. I think it is funny when people who don’t know that she is adopted say how much we look alike, which we don’t mind you. Or when people ask who the black boy on my face book is that is labeled as my brother. I simply tell them that he is my brother, no explanation needed. After I finally explain that my mother and step father have adopted so many children the questions start pouring in. I just tell them that it is never dull around there.
Although I have to admit when a new child comes in and you finally remember their name after several weeks, AND then they change it to something completely different when they get adopted, that is a challenge remembering which name they go by now. #FosterFamilyProblems #NewNames #NewFaces.
Comments