Chances are that you know someone who is either an adoptee or an adoptive parent. Thankfully, adoption is becoming a topic that is more openly spoken about and embraced. In order to continue this trend, we all need to be mindful of adoption’s impact on the lives of people who have been adopted. Here are a few tips on how to be an advocate for adoptees: 1) By supporting adoptive families, you are supporting the children they have adopted. There are moments in the lives of adoptive families when they are in desperate need of friends who will listen without

There really is no way around it. Adoptee trauma is part of the adoption journey. At some point, your child will need to deal with the trauma of being raised in a family that is not their birth family. As adoptive parents, it breaks our hearts to see them go through this. After all, part of our job as parents is to shield and protect them from anything that could hurt them. Depending on where and how your child came to you during the adoption process, this trauma can take on different forms. For some, there will be the eventual

So how do you handle birth parents that want zero contact? My wife and I adopted our two daughters last year on National Adoption Day. What a day that was! It was the culmination of three years of foster care. As happy as we were and continue to be about our adoption journey, one fact is inescapable. Our forever family was built from the ashes of a broken one. For our girls, there will always be a part of them that feels a loss. As much as we try to protect them from it, it is a part of the

There are so many ways you can find your birth parents with today’s technology. As an adoptee who searched for over 15 years for my birth family, I can tell you I first started off by praying over it–making sure it was God’s will what I was doing. I’m a firm believer of that. Also, if it weren’t for my mom and sister (she is also adopted), I may not have started looking. Facebook I started my search using Facebook, which took me to places I never expected. I was fortunate enough to make it on the local news. They

We all remember the family tree projects in elementary school. I remember coming home and tracing the family genealogy back for as far as I could go. I remember being excited that distant relatives included Abraham Lincoln and Pocahontas. However, as a child who was adopted my distant relatives really did not include Abraham Lincoln and Pocahontas. What really should have gone on my family tree was a big, fat question mark. For many of us who have been adopted our past is a large question mark. I was adopted over 30 years ago where the concept of an “open

All adoptees have a unique adoption story. Mine is no exception. My biological mother was not a teenager when she had me, but she was not prepared to provide proper care for a baby. When I was four days old, she gave me to my mom and dad at a lawyer’s office. My new family consisted of three older siblings, a loving mother and father, and a supportive extended family. When I was 21, I was able to meet my biological mother, my half brother, and their family. Keeping in mind that all stories are different, there are some pieces