Hey all,

Thought I'd go first. Would love to know if there are other adoptive dads/parents out there in the Dad Labs community.

Our second child came to our family through domestic open adoption. It's been an absolute blessing to our family, but it comes with it's unique set of challenges. Would love to swap stories and thoughts.

Thanks for posting this.

I have two children, both of whom my wife and I brought home through adoption. Our daughter is 3 and came home when she was 8 months old. Our son is a
2 1/2 and came home when he was 18 months old.

@revwise1 -- Pleased to meet you. Seems like so far, we're in a fairly "exclusive" club here in the Dadlabs. Maybe that will change over time.

Our adopted daughter is 2.5.Our adoption happens to be transracial. One of the things we're dealing with (mostly laughing about) is that currently, in an attempt to be supportive and engaging absolute strangers will say some amazingly bizarre things.

Example, my wife and I, both clearly Caucasian were at Costco this weekend with our CLEARLY African-American daughter. Our daughter was making friends as little ones will do in the checkout line and engaged the woman behind us in conversation, so we all got chatting. The woman guessed our daughter was around 4. A fairly common guess given Lil Bit's size for her age. She's quite tall. The woman was surprised by the answer and her reaction was, "Wow. She's really tall for her age." Then she dwelled on that for a moment and followed up with, "But I guess it's not surprising. You're both pretty tall as well."

We both looked at her and responded with, "Thanks." It's not the first time, one or both of us have been in a situation like that. I expect it's not limited to adoption. There are all sorts of "blended families" out there. The overall question is, "how do you respond when someone pays you a compliment that's obviously not true?"

Last week someone looked directly at my very blue eyes, then my daughter's nearly black eyes and said, "Oh, she has your eyes." The only thing I could respond with was what I hope was perceived as a polite, "You really think so?" When what' really going through my head is, "are you kidding me?"

It's not a big deal I guess. Right now it's a source of entertainment. Some day, I could see it becoming a sore point as our daughter gets older.

I can definitely relate to that story. We are also a transracial family. My wife and I are caucasian and our children were both adopted from Ethiopia so the physical difference is quite striking.

One instance that jumps out at me is the time my wif and I were out with the kids and we had someone ask if we were planning to tell our kids that they had been adopted. As if our children would not figure out they looked different - not to mention the fact that it's a part of their story.

Because our kids are practically twins - they are 7 months apart - people also often comment when we tell them the ages. It's kind of fun to have someone ask "how old are your kids" then tell them and watch as they try to get their mind around the age difference.

Once these two are in school we are hoping to adopt #3 as we eventually want 4 total.

I can definitely relate to that story. We are also a transracial family. My wife and I are caucasian and our children were both adopted from Ethiopia so the physical difference is quite striking.

One instance that jumps out at me is the time my wif and I were out with the kids and we had someone ask if we were planning to tell our kids that they had been adopted. As if our children would not figure out they looked different - not to mention the fact that it's a part of their story.

Because our kids are practically twins - they are 7 months apart - people also often comment when we tell them the ages. It's kind of fun to have someone ask "how old are your kids" then tell them and watch as they try to get their mind around the age difference.

Once these two are in school we are hoping to adopt #3 as we eventually want 4 total.

I don't know if this counts but my fiance recently went through the process of adopting her sisters due to some strange circumstances. She is their mom now and they consider me their dad. Once we are married I will be adopting them too.