Yesterday I was talking to one of my staff, and she commented that she had noticed how good I was with all the kids at our GED graduation on Monday night. She asked if I had any kids of my own, I said "no" but then ended up telling her about my plans to adopt - I am not good at keeping things to myself, I would much rather tell people what is going on in my life than keep it a secret.

After we talked a little about the adoption process she said, "you know, when I saw you with the kids on Monday, I thought to myself that it would be a terrible waste if you didn't have kids of your own, so I think it's great what you're doing."

Last summer, my sister said something very similar to me when I was playing with various younger relatives on my parents' front lawn at a family event. She asked me why I wasn't planning to have kids, because of all her siblings she thought I was the best with kids. At the time, I was already thinking about pursuing single motherhood, although I hadn't yet started doing any research about it, so I told my sister about what I was thinking.

Little kids have always been drawn to me, even when I was a kid myself. I think there's two reasons they like me, at least now that I'm an adult. One is that I have no problem getting down to their level - heck, at 5'2" I don't really have far to go to be at their level! But also, I never think twice about sitting on the floor with kids, or running around on the grass with them, or doing whatever it is they want to do for fun. The other reason is that I very rarely ignore kids or talk down to them. I talk to them like they actually have something to say that I'm interested in hearing, and even when I have no clue what they are actually saying I'll make appropriate conversational noises like "you don't say," "really?" "is that so?"

In the past, when people have told me that I'm good with kids, I've always said it's easy to be good with other people's kids. Other people's kids go home with their parents at the end of the day, and you don't have to deal with any kid messiness when they aren't yours. I know that I'll enjoy and be good at having my own kid when it comes to the fun parts, but I worry about the hard parts. What happens when the kid doesn't do what I tell him or her to do? What will it be like to deal with bedtime and eating and homework and peer pressure and discipline, day in and day out with no break?

I guess I will find out soon enough!

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Read about my adoption journey on my blog:  Inventing My Life