It is a tough ask because obviously people moan on social media, and I'm going to preface every comment below with the suggestion you read the Mumsnet forums extensively for what I feel is usually relatively unbiased advice and a realistic version of events. You've got loads of threads on here about adopting with a birth child, so I would recommend you read those first and then come back with any specific questions.
However, you want only the positive about adoptionvor the moment so here goes some positive things about my kids.
My kids are bloody hilarious. They absolutely crack me up and make deadpan comments that you couldn't make up.
They are both in mainstream school, and I don't know if thriving is the word because every day at pick up I'm met with more shenanigans they have done in the day, but school are committed to working stuff out for them at the moment, and we are doing an absolute number on their risk assessment policy.
They make up songs to sing themselves to sleep about how much their family loves them and they can always have a map to get back to our family home if they get lost.
I've managed to go back to work part time and I'm loving it.
They are a sibling pair who fought like I've never seen, but with intentional and occasionally unusual tactics we managed to reduce altercations to a relatively normal sibling level and frequency, which was much improved mainly by the youngest realising he could bite back. Suddenly fighting became much less appealing and now we wrestle with only the occasional hair pull.
They love our cat, despite the fact she clearly despises them.
We take them on holidays regularly. They mainly like it, although whether that's because Europeans have a less prudish approach to clothing is unclear. We go to SEN swimming each week and they are teaching themselves how to swim through sheer determination to copy the guy who pretends to be a dolphin. They will brook no interference with this method, particularly me trying to give any instructions, but it's somehow working far better than formal swimming lessons, plus the pool is warmer. We don't ask why.
Having kids with eating difficulties means that we can all just chill out about food and make the choices we want to under the guise of modelling good eating to the kids. Their experiments with food sometimes make my stomach turn, but there is a joy in watchíng a child who would willingly subsist on plain crackers chow down a whole plateful of pasta with ketchup when your strategies work.
My kids are bonkers and always have a plan. They are full of absolutely undeserved and unmerited confidence in their physical and social ability, and only when stymied by either insurmountable physical barrier or repeated rejection do they finally give up on whatever nonsensical challenge they have set themselves. This is positive because it exhausts them and we all get an early night.
They love cuddling with us. They love snuggling and physical touch at any given opportunity. If my bum is touching a seat, I can guarantee I get about ten minutes before one or the other of them is coming to cuddle, tap, touch, hold my hand, play with my hair, join in with what I'm doing. It's sweet, and I do try to remember that they won't do it forever, even if sometimes I just want to get on with what I'm doing.
My kids have unlimited ability to focus on certain things when they want to and utilise every opportunity to beg, borrow, wheedle and cajole knowledge from whatever source they can. The eldest is currently living for knights, and the promise that if he does his phonics that he will be able to read all the books he wants to about knights is the main driving force behind him actually engaging with his phonics. In the meantime, he is watching whatever he can about knights on the iPad at school, is desperate to go to various museums to see more knights and bought a book for my father in law for fathers sday so that they could read it together about, you guessed it, knights.
I could go on forever. I love my kids, and I also kind of love that I don't actually have to follow the rules of society whilst I parent them too. For me there is a freedom in being able to be quite critical of traditional western parenting and be forced into thinking but what is right for my child in this moment? It has forced me to reconsider so many of my values, although that does put me at odds to a lot of people who don't understand our way of parenting. I'm not religious, but the notion that one serves a child and humble oneself in order to do so is the closest thing I can think of to it. And like anything, it is hard, but the rewards are there. And you will find support if you look in the right places. Those groups are for people in a specific situation - and if you aren't there yet, it seems so shocking from the outside, and yet these things are always a possibility. Denying that possibility would be unfair should you end up in that situation. But then again, if you joined a teachers Facebook group, for example, you would see a specific set of issues that people were raising that might seem negative, but are based in the reality people are facing at the time. I'm a teacher and when I was moving from one job to another I joined a group about teachers leaving the profession. If my only experience of the career was viewing that page, I wouldn't be a teacher now! However, if you were to become a teacher, some of those might affect you, and you would be glad of the heads-up about what options are available to you by other people being honest about their experiences. If you had no intention to enter that career, it could be a bit shocking to see what's in the sausage as it were. I, for one, have seen the sausage ingredients of both teaching and adoption and have continued with both paths because I love them both despite their many, many difficulties. I also like a sausage bap despite knowing the ingredients ,but am glad that it wouldn't come as a shock to me later on.
I love my kids and adoption was the best route for us and our family, and I would do it again all over again, but it definitely isn't for everyone. Take your social workers advice, read everything and don't stick your head in the sand about the worst case scenario. It's too much of a gamble to imagine you won't have at least some of the issues they outline, but also some of the joys too.