My mother-in-law (MIL) is moving to be nearer to us.

My hubby, her only child, has gone to Dallas to help her pack and put her on the plane. She arrives this morning after giving up her home of thirty years.

I am leaving in a few hours to pick her up at the airport, and Hubby is driving the moving van back home. She won’t be living with us, but in an assisted living facility. Still, we will see her at least once or more every week - which is a great improvement over the twice yearly visits we used to have.

I’m lucky that MIL, and my whole family, and hubby’s family has all accepted K - completely, wholeheartedly - as ours. There was never talk of her as ‘an adopted baby’. Only talk of love and how lucky everyone was. We are so lucky to have her, she is so lucky to have us and so forth around the family. Everyone is lucky. And it is true. We all love her dearly.

I’m glad. Not every family has such welcoming arms.

On one email list that I’m on, one adoptive mom is complaining about her intolerant mother-in-law. On another list, a different mom says her mother-in-law never accepted their adoptive children the same as their bio children. She says she can tell by the way her MIL looks at her kids.

Here on the adoption.com blogs, Shar even wrote a post about her grand-mother-in-law after she died and the will was read. Shar expressed her sadness when she discovered how deeply the difference - blood over adoption - nature vs nurture - was felt by this relative.

I am so very grateful we don't have hurtful comments, looks or unexpressed thought about adoption in our family. Everyone really is supportive.

So, to my mother-in-law, and to all our extended family out there. Thank you for supporting us. Thank you for loving K.

And to my MIL, Welcome to Colorado!