Library Categories

Earlier today I took the kids to the library for our weekly visit to pick up more books. The older kids were all set up on the library computers playing educational games so I decided to go ahead and take the little one upstairs with me to see if there were any books on adoption that I haven't already purchased. (I've bought so many books at this point! Now I just need to find time to read them between the four kids in the house all day and the thirty teenagers in the youth group.) I went into the online card catalog and found the section that had the adoption books. There were three. Two of them were on domestic adoption. One of them was on international adoption and it didn't look to have a whole lot of information contained within. As disappointing as that was, when I looked on either side of the adoption books, I found books on child abuse and children with ADD and children with emotional and behavioral difficulties. I was shocked that this was the category of books that adoption should fall under. Is there not a place in a public library where adoption books make more sense? Does it say something about the thoughts of the person who categorizes books? Are my children going to be considered "difficult, hard to handle, abused" just because they are adopted? I know of at least one member of our family who believes that our child will be a "bad seed" because we won't give birth to him. Apparently, this is a common misconception, that children who are adopted have terrible issues, that they won't be a blessing but rather, a curse to the family who chooses adoption. I know that our children will have questions, doubts, fears, anxieties, insecurities, all that stem from the loss of their birth family. I pray that we will have the resources, the education, and most of all, the love necessary to help our children through these times. I pray that even through the pain, he will find joy in the love of two families, the family that chose life for him and loved him enough to want the best possible situation for him, and the family that chose to be his forever family, to give him love for the rest of his life, chose to be his mommy and daddy because he is that important. I know all of our days won't be perfect or easy and he won't always be the perfect child and we won't always be the perfect parents, but I believe that God has called us to this journey. I will not be discouraged by other's thoughts or fears, nor will I be discouraged by library categories.