kids bonding - bio and adopted

I think the bonding between younger children is alot easier than between older ones. It happens more naturally. We have experience both in our family. Your daughter may initially resent the others, simply because she's going to feel like she needs to compete for attention and isn't the 'only one' anymore. The new children will need lots of bonding with their parents, so it can be quite a challenge for you at first. It helps to do lots of things together: sitting with them all on the couch to read books. Going to the playground together, talking walks. Spend lots of quality time - all of you together. Most of all, just relax and don't expect too much at first. Most of the time, bonding between the children will just become the result of being in your family. God bless you!

I had the same concern when we began our adoption journey. I was worried that our three biological children wouldn't feel like siblings with our adopted children. I wondered what they would think because they are Hispanic and we are not. Lots of questions and concerns went through my head. When we brought our two youngest home from Guatemala our oldest three were 6, 5, and 2. I can honestly say, they didn't have any issues with bonding with their new siblings. It was as if they had been born to us, only at 5 months old and 6.5 months old! And now that we are coming up on our first anniversaries together, you couldn't tell (other than racial differences) who was born to us and who was not. They are siblings in every way that matters. I'm not sure we did much to prepare our older children for this. We decided against changing the birthorder. We also talked alot about the babies, the adoption process, and really involved them in getting things ready. Just like we did each time we added a new baby by birth. Good luck with your adoption journey! Kim