My experience is that families are families, period. It doesn’t matter if the people in the family share DNA. It doesn’t matter if kids have come from their mother’s bodies or not. Kids are kids, and parents are parents.
“The Power of Truth”
I know my parents were trying to protect me. But all their secrecy made me feel like something was wrong with me.
[Book Review] Lost Daughters
Parents of young girls can read Lost Daughters to explore how their daughter might feel as she travels through life as an adoptee.
[Book Review] Prison Baby
Jiang-Stein always knew that she was adopted, but only discovered that she was born in a prison at age 12.
China Ends One-Child Policy, Adoptees React
China’s devastating one-child policy has finally ended. What does it mean for adoptees?
“Should I Play the ‘Adoption Card’?”
I began to have second thoughts about sharing my story in application essays — just as it’s no one else’s business, it shouldn’t factor into a college’s decision to accept me.
Readers’ Favorite Adoption Memoirs
Once again, we turned to the Adoptive Families community to compile our Fifth Annual Best Adoption Books List. Hundreds of you recommended your favorite adoption memoirs on Adoptive Families Circle. These favorites reached the top of the list.
Video: Open Adoptee Experiences
In this open adoption video, teen and young adult adoptees who grew up knowing their birth parents share their thoughts and experiences.
Summer Reading 2015
Everyone touched by adoption should check out these powerful memoirs, by a birth mother and an adoptee.
Documentaries About Adoption
These nonfiction films are sure to open up dialogues about the subjects’ experiences and your family’s story long after the last frame.
“Journey to Calcutta”
Despite my parents’ urging, I had always rejected my Indian identity. At 21, I learned to embrace it.
“The Meetings of the Moms”
The day my mother met my birth mother.
“We Always Called You Jason”
Fantasizing about my birth parents, I never dreamed my strongest link to the past would be through a flinty grandmother.
“Homeward Bound”
Retracing a journey I had made 23 years earlier inspired unforeseen emotions about my past, and about one child’s future.
[Book Excerpt] Trail of Crumbs: Hunger, Love, and the Search for Home
In this excerpt from her adoption memoir, Kim Sunée describes the hunger she experienced as a child, and how food helped her bond with her adoptive family.
Putting Your Feelings on Paper
Infertility, parenting after adoption, growing up in an adoptive family, relinquishing a child—all give rise to complex emotions. Learn about the innovative Therapeutic Writing model that’s helping many lay bare and make sense of their innermost thoughts.
“A Hunger for Words”
The elusive memory of a kindred spirit has steered me, over the years, toward the heart of my own story.
“Family by Choice”
One adoptive mother describes her dad’s decision to make her legally his daughter by stepparent adoption, and how it influenced her understanding of family.
“Three Little Words on My Adoption Day”
A decade of disappointing foster care placements made me doubt the two people who had taken me into their hearts.
“When My Birth Mom Was an Astronaut”
I looked for my birth mother everywhere. For a little while, I found her on the Space Shuttle.