Taken Aback

I filled out our census form today, and when I put the girls' names in I had to select "biological son or daughter" or "adopted son or daughter". Imagine how that felt like a sock to the stomach. I don't view them as adopted anymore. That doesn't mean that I don't think about their birth parents anymore, but I just think of them as my girls. As I sat there and thought about why they would want to separate the two the only thing I could come us with was that they want to know how many adoptions have taken place since the last census. But what does that mean for next time? I will always have to select biological or adopted. And then I thought, well maybe they want to know how many adoptions have taken place so they can continue with the adoption credits. The more there are the more need for the credit. I would love it if that were the case. We have been able to get about half of Chipmunk's adoption paid off b/c of the credit, so I would love to see families receive that help for years to come. But for all the reasons I could come up with, a part of me would have loved to just cross out biological and adopted and just leave son or daughter. Then let them call me to see which one I should have marked so I can give them an earful. For someone who can't have biological children it's a slap in the face that they can't mark that box. Please don't mistake my feelings for shame. I'm not one bit ashamed to mark the adopted box. In fact, I am very proud of where my girls came from. But I really don't want them to be defined by their adoption. Yes, they WERE adopted, but now they are precious, smart, thriving little girls who have absolutely stolen my heart, and I don't want the first thought in someone else's mind to be "Oh, those are the adopted Haik girls". The problem the whole "biological/adopted" thing bothers me is b/c it's a hard fact to have to admit that I will never be able to mark the biological box without going into debt for treatments that aren't guaranteed to work b/c of my stupid body. And just when I think we're past that sad, lonely part of our lives, it comes up and slaps me in the face again. Stupid IF!! Grrr!!!