Milestones
This is a short list of milestones that can be wonderful occasions and also hard times for adopted children and their families:
Birthdays (adopted child, siblings, parents, birthparents)
Anniversaries (placement into foster care, an orphanage, into the adoptive family, or the date of adoption finalization)
Holidays (especially Mother's and Father's Days, but any holiday that involves family gatherings and sentiment, such as Christmas, Passover, or Thanksgiving)
Entering kindergarten or first grade (this may be the first time an adopted child must explain adoption to peers; it can be the first time the child realizes that most children were not adopted into their families)
Puberty (as children become sexually mature and able to conceive or father a baby themselves, thoughts of birthparents may arise)
Adoptive mother's pregnancy and birth of a child, or adoption of another child (may trigger doubts about the adopted child's place in the family)
Adopted person's pregnancy and birth of a child or fathering of a child (often a powerful trigger that may ignite interest in reconnecting with birth relatives, if only to obtain medical histories and updated information)
Every good and perfect gift is from above... James 1:17a NIV