acciofog

Not sure if you're done/back yet... but if you are:

Have you and your fiancee considered children? I'm not sure how ALS works genetically, but if there's a good chance you would pass it on to biological children, would you prefer to adopt?

Do you have any siblings? If so, how has your diagnosis affected them?

A friend of mine fostered 3 kids from a drug addicted mom for a while several years ago. I had always been under the impression (like you, it seems) that older kids being brought into the home would be hard to adjust and hard to really see them as family. She surprised me by saying that she learned she could love other children just as much as her own children. She was surprised by this as well. She has a past full of abuse. Do you think it's possible for certain people (obviously not your adoptive parents) to really treat and love children as their own? Do you think her past had something to do with her ability to help/love them? Also- if couples have adopted children, and then later have biological children, do you think, regardless of how the parents act, that the adopted children will perceive that they are loved less than the biological children? (There are a number of times when I would swear my parents loved my little brother more than me... he would get away with crap I'd never have been able to get away with. If I were adopted, I am pretty sure I'd see that as favoring the biological over me. Does that make sense?)

Side comment: As a Christian, it pains me to hear of so-called Christians not acting like it. It gives us all a bad name, and I'm sorry your experience with Christians was not a good one.