First I want to say thank you to everyone who participated in my giveaway for National Adoption Month. There were such a wonderful array of responses given to my question of "what does adoption mean to you?"

The variety in the answers validates the point that I made, that your own personal experiences with adoption and the role that you have played or hope to play in an adoption will leave you with your own, very personal definition of what adoption is.

At first I had planned on choosing my favorite response to be the winner of the giveaway, but I quickly realized that that was not going to be possible, as all of the responses were well thought out, heart felt, honest and wonderful.

So, instead of choosing a favorite, I poked my head into the bathroom while Josh was in the shower and had him choose a number between 1 and 24. He shouted out "17!" (and then quickly added, "And no, that is not the number of kids I think we'll have!) :)

That makes the lucky winner "waitingmama" who wrote:

As a step-parent adoptee, a mother through birth and a prospective AP, I see adoption as an opportunity to increase the abundance of love that we each share as family members. There are spaces within our family where our adopted children will fit. Even now in those spaces and from those spaces love is created and flows through each of us, to reach our children who are not yet home and from them to the world adding to the beauty of being human on Earth.

Congrats waitingmama!!!

I have really put a lot of thought into what adoption means to me this month, and if you have missed them, I have written a series of posts here on all that adoption means to me. I hope that you too have been able to put some thought into what adoption means to you this month, whether you participated in the giveaway or not. I also hope that you take the time to go back to this post and read all of the wonderful comments that readers left.

Some of the comments were short and to the point.

Adoption is a way to build a family, equal in power to birth or marriage.

Some of the comments were long and detailed.

How do you define adoption in just a few words? That first moment when you think, "This is it, we will adopt a child" ...to the piles of paper... to the anxious waiting and wondering. "What does God have in store for us?"
Then you get the call and you see this new precious face. What is this child's personality, who is he, what makes him laugh or cry, what makes him tick.
It's the moment when you get to hold him in your arms and know that all is right with the world. And suprise... He has dimples!
It's those first several days home when NOTHING is right with the world. Everything is new... to you both, and neither of you have a clue what to do with the other.
It's the day that you realize that you have gotten a glimpse of what it means to be a child of God. To know that this child is a gift to you, that you are to love with all of your heart and soul. You have been entrusted, chosen to love nurture and care for this amazing child.
How did I get so lucky?!

Some comments showed adoption through the eyes of new adoptive parents.

Adoption is tough. Somedays, some moments, I wonder, "What was I thinking?" And then she wraps her little arms tightly around my neck and presses her chubby cheek hard against mine... and I remember.

Some comments showed adoption through the eyes of seasoned adoptive parents.

Adoption is to me ...Like breathing, my word expands, and then draws in close, a millions times a day! My world, my heart, my mind have expanded through my children, their birthfamilies, and everything that our unique connections means. At the same time I feel like I have drawn the world into the smallest of spaces, the circle of my arms when I hold my children inside them. Being a part of their lives has meant being blessed to become linked to the places, the cultures, the peoples, the essence of everything that makes up THEM.

Some comments showed adoption through the eyes of adoptees.

as a biracial adoptee adoption means being given the chance to have life instead of life being taken from you. it means giving someone a chance to take a part in the life of a miracle. it means witnessing the favor that god has placed on the life of a child who has overcome life's hardships. it means picking up where someone had to leave off.. it means the recovery of a yet undiscovered treasure that can only be truly found by walking side by side with and adding to the jewels already stored inside a child
A
Discovery
Of
Precious
Treasure
In
One's
Natural life

Some comments showed adoption through the eyes of birth mothers.

To me adoption is family. It is waiting twenty years to meet a person who was worth the twenty year wait. It is not knowing who your child will be and then in an instant knowing they are your family when you meet them.

It is the oportunity to show the world your beautiful family as a living proof that we all can get along, love, support and hold up every member of this great big human race and take one step closer to the day John Lennon so dearly imagined...a day we can all live as one.

I am grateful to everyone who participated and who shared their personal thoughts and emotions about adoption. Together, they paint a truly beautiful and real picture of what adoption is.

*Picture from Liquid Library