It is one of the most powerful things any person alive can do, to choose to raise a child. Whether he or she is a genetically related child or one you have gained from another family, a child is a life long commitment. It's worse than having a puppy. There is a well known saying that to have a child is to wear your heart forever outside your body. To some extent that is true. Think teenage angst was bad? It's noting on the first time you have to deal with your own child's heartbreak!