Being an adoptive Mum is...

...finding one of those soft play children's centres and being able to 'let the children go' in the safe environment.  Took me several visits to relax for even just a few minutes; even now, months later I'm still on tenterhooks if I haven't seen them for a while.  It has given me a chance to do some reading - yes a book, with words and everything!  I now read a book in 5-6 weeks instead of a day (pre-children) lol

Being an adoptive Mum is...

...thinking that their birth parents got it wrong (maybe not all the time) and so there is additional pressure to get the parenting more right than they did.  And then I get so engrossed in trying to get it so right (even thought I don't know what I'm doing half the time!) that I stress myself out so severely that I am doing myself more mental damage.  I need to remember that I am me, that they are now in a safe place and my parenting skills need to be "good enough" not "perfect"

Being an adoptive Mum is...

...putting the children in the most awful clothes that their birth parents bought for them and willing them to put on a sudden growth spurt, because the second they grow out of them they are going straight to the charity shop - in fact I might just burn them!  The clothes not the kids!  (We are keeping one outfit each for their memory boxes.)  Of course, you can't just buy them a whole new wardrobe the day they move in, apart from the sizeable cost, they need the safety and comfort of things they know - even if 'Essex Girl' wouldn't be seen dead in them.  God, they look so chavvy lol