Adoption Story Quotes

“If we remain positive and accept what is, if we tend to pay attention to the beauty of the practice but not examine the insides, we will be less likely to give ourselves the benefit of the doubt, and we will forgo the potential beauty of our birth culture, and if we forgo the potential of our birth culture, it's harder to see the beauty within ourselves.”
― Janine Myung Ja, Adoption Stories

“Why should we be receptive to the ups and downs of multiple adoption stories? When we allow the elite 1% to speak for us, they will share from their perspective, and naturally, this point of view is tainted with doing whatever is possible to protect their reputation. In other words, I've learned that what pro-adoption lobbyists claim to be "in the best interest of the child" is truly not always in the best interest of the child.”
― Janine Myung Ja, Adoption Stories

“What matters most is not 'what' you are, but 'who' you are.”
― DaShanne Stokes

“People think that LGBTs adopting children will hurt them, but it's not being in loving homes that hurts children most.”
― DaShanne Stokes

“What makes a family is neither the absence of tragedy nor the ability to hide from misfortune, but the courage to overcome it and, from that broken past, write a new beginning.”
― Steve Pemberton, A CHANCE IN THE WORLD: An Orphan Boy, a Mysterious Past, and How He Found a Place Called Home

“Adoption is a lifelong journey. It means different things to me at different times. Sometimes it is just a part of who I am. Other times it is something I am actively going through.”
― Kelly DiBenedetto, Adoption Is a Lifelong Journey

“Adoption isn't just a childhood experience, it's a life-long experience.”
― DaShanne Stokes

“Adoptees deserve open records because deception and partial truths do not set us free.”
― DaShanne Stokes

“Laws forbidding adoptees from accessing their original birth certificates are outdated and need to be changed today.”
― DaShanne Stokes

“Adoptee rights are everyone's rights, and they deserve to be protected.”
― DaShanne Stokes

“If you come across someone who isn’t cussing in the time of great anguish and distress then you’ve met the one causing everyone else to cuss.”
― A. White

“According to my file, I was abandoned on the steps of the children’s home in Telbury with a birth certificate tucked inside the shawl. The certificate stated my name, date of birth, and place of birth—which was Aldabury Maternity Hospital—and my birth mother’s name and address. All I have is my first name and date and place of birth. Everything else regarding my birth mother on the certificate seems to be false.”
― Lorna Peel, The Image of Her

“If the system were designed to protect adoptees, why do so many have to fight for their rights?”
― DaShanne Stokes

“It's illegal to deny people their records due to race or gender. Adoptees deserve the same rights and protections.”
― DaShanne Stokes

“Blood can help make family, but family often transcends blood.”
― DaShanne Stokes

“The problem with numbing this pain, though, is that we then keep it lodged within ourselves, and it prevents us from experiencing the fuller growth we need in order to become our more authentic selves.”
― Lisa Coppola, Voices Unheard: A Reflective Journal for Adult Adoptees

“our country is poor but our hearts are rich”
― Adele Rickerby, The Promise I Kept

“Discovering that I was adopted redefined my entire world, but it taught me that who you are doesn't change.”
― DaShanne Stokes

“Being denied their original birth certificates isn't just a problem for adoptees. It's a social problem, requiring social change.”
― DaShanne Stokes

“I love them both as though I birthed them both, but also as though I adopted them both.”
― Natalie Brenner, This Undeserved Life: Uncovering The Gifts of Grief and The Fullness of Life

“I wasn't going to school. I'd made the decision somewhere between him threatening to kill me and him trying to replace mum. I couldn't pinpoint the logic but I knew it had to be done. I was different and if he hit Cass I'd kill him.”
― Tracie Daily, Checkmate: Care Abuse Love Murder

“Macclesfield was like a wound I couldn't stop picking. I didn't know if I'd ever heal or if my constant pulling at the scab would leave me open to infection but I did know I had to keep doing it. I had to find out what lay beneath each layer of skin even if it meant that I felt more and more pain. It could have been another form of self harm or it could have been a part of my journey I just had to make.
Either way I was compelled to continue. Could I get Jodie and Jonathon back?
Could I see them playing again?
Would Courtney accept me into her family?
Perhaps I'd belong there until I got my family back together?
Okay so I couldn't grow up with Alan as I'd liked but I could try and fit in with Clive and Phil. The thought hurt, I could easily turn to crime but how would that help with the social services?”
― Tracie Daily, Checkmate: Care Abuse Love Murder

“I was looking up my name,” I told her. “Did you know that Imani means faith in Swahili? ”
I watched Mom’s face to see if her eyebrows would go up or down. It was like I was in science class, recording the color change of a piece of litmus paper. The result was better than I could have hoped: One eyebrow up!
“Really?” Mom said, sounding genuinely interested. “Your Hebrew name means faith too. They must come from the same root.”
― Elissa Brent Weissman, The Length of a String

“Being adopted is complicated. It can be both a win and a loss at the same time.”
― Lisa Coppola, Voices Unheard: A Reflective Journal for Adult Adoptees

“Being adopted is complicated. It can be both a win and a loss at the same time, and when the “loss” part goes unacknowledged, the omission adds greatly to the complication.”
― Lisa Coppola, Voices Unheard: A Reflective Journal for Adult Adoptees

“Making a human always takes the same three ingredients—an egg cell, a sperm cell, and a uterus. But just how the ingredients come
together is a fascinating tale. With discoveries in science and medicine, we
have insemination and IVF, along with sex, to bring babies into the world. Sometimes the ingredients that created us come from the same people who are raising us. Other times, we don’t share genetics with the people responsible for our care, such as when we are raised by stepparents, adoptive parents, or foster parents. This is also often true when donors and surrogates are involved.”
― Rachel HS Ginocchio, Roads to Family: All the Ways We Come to Be

“Adoption has been both a challenging and rewarding experience for our family. By embracing open adoption, we have been able to honor and celebrate the birth families of our children while also providing a loving home for them.”
― Gerald Zgabay, Opening Up: Exploring Faith in the Everyday Messiness of Life

“Life is a gift. Don't take it for granted.”
― David Enker, Phantom Parents: Memoir of an Adoptee

“When you were adopted, there was no such thing as legal or illegal adoption. There was adoption, and that was it.”
― Danielle Bassi, The Baby in the Picture: A Novel

“There is no way that you would have had the life you’ve had in the States back here in Brazil. Particularly those like you who are a bit dark.”
― Danielle Bassi, The Baby in the Picture: A Novel