Adoptive parents face challenges and make sacrifices to provide loving, stable homes for children in need.
Addressing families who have adopted children, Pope John Paul II said in 2000, “To adopt a child is a great work of love. When it is done, much is given, but much is also received. It is a true exchange of gifts.”
He continued, “Adopting children, regarding and treating them as one’s own children, means recognizing that the relationship between parents and children is not measured only by genetic standards. Procreative love is first and foremost a gift of self. There is a form of ‘procreation’ which occurs through acceptance, concern, and devotion. The resulting relationship is so intimate and enduring that it is in no way inferior to one based on a biological connection. When this is also juridically protected, as it is in adoption, in a family united by the stable bond of marriage, it assures the child that peaceful atmosphere and that paternal and maternal love which he needs for his full human development.”
November is National Adoption Month. The following are interviews with four Catholic couples who adopted children—some who also have biological children, others who do not. They described the challenges and blessings of becoming adoptive parents.
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