Some prospective adoptive families have a fear that they won’t be able to love an adopted child as much as a biological child.

While this is a natural concern that couples experiencing infertility may have, what they don’t realize is how wrong they are until they actually become adoptive parents.

Speak with any adoptive couple, and it is guaranteed that they will all say the same thing about their adopted child: They couldn’t love him or her any more than they do. The fact that the child is not related by blood is insignificant and never even thought of in these families. The reason why is because the parents and the child are bonded by something much stronger than blood – they are bonded by love.

Once the baby begins to grow, takes his first steps, says his first words, starts his first day of school, etc., something becomes more and more obvious to every adoptive couple:

Adoption is NOT a substitute for parenting; adoption IS parenting.

The following are the top XX reasons for adopting a baby.

1. The Adoptive Family Is There From Birth

In private domestic adoptions, once the birth mother is admitted to the hospital in preparation of her going into labor, often times the adoptive family will either drive or fly to the hospital in which she and their child are located. Depending on the birth mother’s wishes, the adoptive family will be one of the first if not the first people to hold the newborn.

So no, the adoptive family does not miss out on the hospital experience just because the adoptive mother isn’t actually giving birth to the baby.

2. Avoid Infertility Treatments, Save Money

Prior to adopting, many adoptive couples seek infertility treatments to facilitate their dreams of becoming parents. Unfortunately, many times the infertility treatments fail to work, and the hopeful parents have nothing to show for the thousands of dollars they spent.

After these couples adopt a baby, they always wish they would have stopped the infertility treatments sooner, which would have saved them money and a lot of physical and emotional stress on the mother. This is a lot easier said than done, but most adoptive couples would agree that the infertility treatments, for them, were unnecessary and they should have chosen adoption sooner.

3. Choose Gender and Race of the Child

Many private domestic adoption agencies allow the adoptive family to choose the race of the child they would like to adopt, because naturally many adoptive families prefer to raise a child of the same race.

Some adoption agencies even offer a gender-specific program, where the adoptive couple is allowed to choose whether they want to adopt a boy or a girl. So if the adoptive family already has three boys and really want a baby girl, this option is available to them.

4. Experience Parenthood

For some hopeful parents, adoption is the only way they can experience parenthood. All of the milestones in raising a baby, child, teenager and young adult would be missed without adoption. The baseball games, prom, piano recitals, amusement parks, vacations, trips to Grandma’s, Christmas morning – these are all moments that adoption creates for thousands of new adoptive families every year.

All of those memories serve as reminders that adoption IS parenting.