Adoption Vocabulary

I would like to educate on some adoption vocabulary. Caleb and I didn't know most of these terms and their purpose before this adoption journey and thought many of you might not either. These terms are used to keep adopted children from feeling like second class members of a family. When we are asked awkward questions our first purpose in answering is not to inform the questioner but to answer what our child needs to hear. I hope you find this informative and helpful.

Q. Is he your real son?
A. Yes, he is our REAL son and we are our adopted child's REAL parents.
Our son's birth parents are called BIRTH PARENTS or BIOLOGICAL PARENTS, also some people refer to a birth mother as a TUMMY MOMMY.

Q. Are they real siblings?
A. Although Ocean & Jaguar won't be biological siblings to Denekew they will be REAL SIBLINGS.

Q. Are you going to have any more kids of your own?
A. All our kids are OUR OWN. We may adopt again, but we don't plan to have any more BIOLOGICAL children.