If you have ever had a family member that's been adopted I'm sure you've heard over a thousand times "that's your, sibling? Y'all don't look anything alike!" Or one of my favorites is "is that your boyfriend/girlfriend?" While yes we are well aware we look nothing like they're still family and no we're not dating.

Adoption is something truly magnificent. A few years ago my family adopted a boy, and he very quickly became family. He had his own chores around the house and was held to the same standard as my sister and I. I had always wanted a brother and now I had one. Though he was never legally my brother because he was so close to turning 18 he's just as much family as my parents and sister are.

Adoption can be a long and grueling process, it can last even several years, but there's always that special moment where it's like wow. This person is now a part of my family. Whether a piece of paper or you yourself decide it to be.

Adoption breaks the barriers of what a family is. It changes is meaning and dynamic altogether. It is no longer just defined by someone you share the same DNA with or someone who happened to marry someone who has similar DNA to yours. It gives a whole new meaning to family and makes love seem boundless.

The ability to take in and love someone you barely know is something of another world. It proves that people are capable of loving one another without them being blood or a part of the traditional sense of a family. Yes, there are other ways this love is proven in things such as marriage but adoption is something even more special because the love is almost instantaneous. It Is a miracle in some ways, it helps create families for those who may not have one and gives people a home who do not have one.

So aside from all the constant questions and misconceptions adoption is one of the greatest experiences you will ever have. Adoption changes a child's life and it will change yours.

"Families don't have to match. You don't have to look like someone else to love them." – Leigh Anne Tuohy

Adoption is more than just a piece of paper. It is loving someone regardless of who they come from and loving them with your whole heart as if they were blood. In my experience adoption has changed my life, for the better of course. Adoption redefines family and gives you a completely different perspective on life and love.

Limits will be pushed and people will always have something to say and you may even hear some things you did not think you ever would and there will be people who will never understand why you would adopt or how you could love a child like it is your own when it's not. But by doing so you're changing someone's life and their changing yours.