I’m using my blog as a place to vent today, so bear with me……

November is National Adoption Awareness month and birth parents do not get a lot of the focus during the month as it more intended to make people aware of the children in foster care waiting to be adopted. I get that. I really do.

I go to a pretty large church that has a very diverse population. We have many adoptive parents that have adopted domestically, through foster care, and internationally. There’s even a small group for adoptive parents. We have a few birthmoms in the congregation that I know of off the top of my head but I knew them through other avenues before I realized we attended the same church. We probably have more birth parents too that are just quiet about it. And I’m sure there are adult adoptees in the congregation as well.

So, the first Sunday of November, in the church bulletin, there is a little something saying that November is National Adoption Awareness Month and there will be a special service one evening for adoptive parents on adoption and infertility conducted by someone from a local adoption agency. That slightly annoyed me for two reasons; the first being the fact that it’s automatically assuming all adoptive parents have infertility issues and secondly, it excludes adoptees and birthparents. I briefly thought I should call and offer to share my experiences as a birthmother during this special service but dismissed the idea thinking I was getting nit picky and making a mole hill into a mountain.

So then today, I’m in the bookstore of the church and I notice a small display stand holding some nice printed copies of the poem “Legacy of an Adopted Child.” They are printed all nice on card stock with a pretty little graphic and a little sign saying “Adoptive Parents, Please take one.” Those have never been there before, so I know they are there because it’s National Adoption Awareness Month.

That really annoyed me. If I really wanted a pretty copy of that poem, I could make one myself, but the point is, I felt excluded. AGAIN. IN CHURCH! In my eyes, that’s the one place I should NOT feel excluded.

When I talked to A. (Charlie’s adoptive Mom) today I told her about it. She suggested I should print up a nice poem having to do with being a birthparent and put it next to the ones for adoptive parents with a sign saying “For Birthparents.”

I don’t want to be petty, this is church after all. But I’d love to know your thoughts, my dear readers. Should I contact my church and suggest this or should I just “turn the other cheek” so to speak?