My daughters
like to cook - when they have the time. I think their interest and love of cooking was
learned but their individual taste for
foods is probably influenced by their biological make-up. Each of us has
dishes we love, will tolerate and wouldn't even taste.
We all like
down time, to catch up on sleep, regroup, pamper ourselves and spend time with
nature or our many pets.
My girls LOVE
animals. As a family, we have a virtual
zoo that includes dogs and cats, a horse, a rabbit, a turtle and a bearded dragon. One
daughter, whom we refer to as "the animal whisperer" works in an
animal rescue. She has an amazing way with anything on four legs. The other daughter has surrounded
herself with rescued cats and a dog.
As a family, we
always took home the school pets at vacation time. We provided vacation
sanctuary to frogs, turtles, guinea pigs and more. All of our pets were rescued
or re-homed, including the guinea pigs and four dogs. I, myself, grew up in a home with a cat
and a dog. We also provided care for classroom pets - the baby chicks, the guinea
pigs, and the mice. It’s no wonder, I passed this trait along to my girls and
they have continued to provide homes for animals too.
Like my own
mother and sister, we text, talk or email daily. My girls continue this
tradition, not unique to our family, but because they were raised that way.
Would they do this if raised by their birth parents? We will never know.
As my daughters
grew up, sometimes we wondered aloud if and how their life would have been
different if they were raised by their birth families. While many children
fantasize about a different life, for adopted children this is a reality. With
information we had or obtained over the years - we realized some of the ways
their lives could have been different. Without them, mine would have been, too.
Kathy Ann Brodsky, LCSW is a New York and New
Jersey licensed social worker, adoptive mom and advocate for ethical adoption
practice. Through her private practice and agency affiliations, she has
prepared thousands of adoption homestudies, counseled adoptive parents,
parents-to-be and adopted persons, as well as trained professionals to work
with adoptive families. She was Director of the Ametz Adoption Program of JCCA,
a member of the Advisory Board for POV’s Adoption Series, currently a member of
the Adoption Advisory Board of Path2Parenthood and active in the Adoptive
Parents Committee in New York. Her blogs and written contributions can be seen
at her BLOG and as Head Writer for ADOPTION.NET She was named an “Angel in Adoption”
by the Congressional Coalition on Adoption in 2001. You can reach her directly
at EMAIL.
