Adoption and it's hard moments

As many of you know-our girls are adopted from Russia. Adoption is very dear to my heart obviously. There are many tender sweet moments, there are also difficult, hard, sad moments.

We go through highs and lows and sometimes when we are in the middle of a low and there is lots of testing happening a mom knows that there is something else going on other than just testing limits.

This time I had that feeling and I was right. I was talking with Arianna to see if I could gain any insights into what she was feeling lately and she started sobbing and finally told me that a boy
(who it is taking every muscle in my body to not give some adjectives to describe how I feel about this child!)
on her bus found out that she and Halle were adopted from Russia and proceeded to tease her in front of other kids on the bus that she just came from a factory!

Arghhhhhhhhhh- my heart just hurt for her. We've been very open with the girls about their adoption right from the start, but sometimes when moments like this happen I don't know that I am happy with how I answered her.

I told her that adoption is very special. Actually mom and dad are adopted also- into God's family. I told her that God has a plan for all of our lives and His plan is perfect! I also told her that I think that kids that tease her about being adopted are just jealous because she has such a cool story to tell about how we became a family.

I didn't know what else to say to her. She stopped crying, but I'm not convinced that she was satisfied with that answer.

I know that all kids get teased, but as a mom, I just hate it. She's at such a tender age right now, trying to find her way in life and when kids say such mean, hurtful things it really affects her!

Any of you have any other ideas I could tell her?

The scary conversation

Last week I took the girls to crazy bounce for a fun outing. On the car ride when we were done Arianna told me that I had really been good to them that week. I was surprised and told her thank you for noticing- because I feel like alot of time they just take it for granted to do fun things. A few minutes later Halle pipes up from the back seat- "yes- I think you're a lot better than our other mom" (meaning their birth mom)
It caught me off gaurd and before I could respond Arianna looks me square in the eyes and says to me "Why was it that my other mom gave me away?"
big gulp on my part......
We've had this conversation before- we've always been totally upfront with the girls about the fact that they're adopted. It doesn't help though that we've talked about this before- my stomach always drops. I feel like I want to be so careful with this conversation- I don't want to mess this very sensitive topic up!
I stopped the van and we had a conversation that went something like: It wasn't that your mom didn't want you- she loved you so much that she knew that she couldn't give you a good home and be the mommy that you needed. And the really wonderful thing was that God knew that you were going to need a family and that we were going to need a Arianna and He had that all worked out already for us!
I can tell that she's been thinking about this alot lately- I feel like she's testing me right now to see if I really love her.
I debated for many days whether I should post about this or not but my conclusion was that someday down the road I hope Arianna reads this post and will see that I did love her and do love her even through the rough times and I'm so blessed to have her as my daughter!