Quotes and Poems From Adoptees

Every adoptee has their own experience and story to tell, filled with positives and eye-opening realities.

In these stories, there are quotes for adopted kids. Sometimes, adoptees express their journey by writing poems about being adopted.

Regardless of how each adoptee shares his or her story, there are lessons to be learned from their quotes about being adopted.

We’ve collected adoptee quotes and poems about being adopted from those who have shared their story. Read on to learn about how adoption has impacted many adoptees around the world.

Quotes About Being Adopted

“It was at St. Mary’s that I met and learned to love the greatest man I’ve ever known. He was the father I needed. He taught me to read, write, and the difference between right and wrong.” – Babe Ruth

“I’m no expert. I’m just a hamburger cook. But I believe in adoption. I believe it is a positive thing. I think everyone deserves a permanent, loving home.” – Dave Thomas

“You realize you’ve never walked in another person’s shoes. Never have. Never will. The same is true in adoption. There are three sets of adoption shoes sitting at the end of the boardwalk. The adoptees…the birth parents’…and the adoptive parents’. Each is unique and each has a story to tell.” – Sherrie Eldridge

“Every single minute matters, every single child matters, every single childhood matters.” – Kailash Satyathi

“Every child deserves a home and love. Period” – Dave Thomas

“I am a living testament you can be adopted and successful.” – Daunte Culpepper

“For me, having been adopted was normal. Knowing I was adopted was as natural as having a belly button. It was just always there.” – Madeleine Melcher

“Even if they show interest in meeting their birth parents as they grow up, you will always be mom and dad.” – Taylor Walker

“My life has been shaped by the decision two people made over 24 years ago. They decided to adopt a child. They got me, and I got a chance at the kind of life all children deserve.” – Karen Fowler

“Adoption has been a part of my life and a part of my family, so it was how I wanted to start. It felt natural and right to me.” – Katherine Heigl

“My birth mother brought me into this world, but it was my adoptive parents who gave me life.” – Christina Romo

“Being adopted is a beautiful thing to me, because you have your own personal story to tell other people. It’s also a great conversation started when talking to someone you just met.” – Abigail Tolleson

“My love for my birth parents in no way takes away love from my parents. It’s not a pie.” – Jeanne Modderman

"I feel no resentment towards my biological parents; in fact, it's quite the opposite. I'm grateful for what they did. One day, I'm going to meet them. And when I do, I'm going to thank them for what they did for me." – John DeFrank

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

“I have a lot of respect for my birth mother. I know she must have had a lot of love for me to want to give me what she felt was a better chance.” — Faith Hill

“I wanted to meet my birth mom mostly to see if she was okay and to thank her, because I’m glad I didn’t end up as an abortion. My adoptive parents made me feel special. There were my parents. 1000%.” — Steve Jobs

"I've found that many people still have trouble understanding the concept of openness in adoption, essentially thinking that it's probably too confusing for an adoptee to be in a relationship with multiple parents. There is also great hesitancy to allow an adoptee to express feelings for their biological parents, especially if those parents hurt them in some way. However, there is a way to both protect ourselves and allow for the deep feelings of connectedness to remain and be acknowledged." – Angela Tucker

“It helps to stay connected and open. Neither my professor nor my pastor-friend are adopted or have any close connections to adoption. But they have both impacted my thinking about walking through the most troublesome parts of life and arriving at a place of peace.” – Deanna Doss Shrodes

“I’ve told people that being adopted is similar to reading a book that doesn’t include the first chapter, so you’re missing the back-story on the main character. Until I met my (natural) family, that’s how I felt.” – Becky, “Through the Eyes of an Adopted Kid” blog

"Remember it isn't all about the excitement, court dates, bio parents, and creating a home for your child. It's not all about boasting and proving you're a great person. Raise them like they are your own, yes, but be prepared to take on the mental trauma as a responsible parent…This child will grow into an adult adoptee. Listen to the voice in the room that is the most affected and the most important." – Summer Hayworth

“Finding my birth family was the single most important moment of my entire life, it was (as) if I’d been holding my breath my entire life and for the first time I could let it out. My ability to be a healthy adult depended on the chance to sit in a room with people who look like me and to feel truly known for the first time in my entire life.” – Rebecca Dolan

“I learned that I didn’t fit it no matter where I was. I learned that being mixed meant I wasn’t white enough to fit with white people or black enough to fit with black people. Being a foster child meant no one actually wanted me, even my family who said they ‘loved me.’ Being an abandoned child created a long-term effect of needing to win approval from others, by any means, so that I didn’t feel like such a heavy and unwanted burden.” – Christina Causey

“They brought me up as if I were their own child. They worried about me, guided me, and punished me, all in the spirit of fairness. I never doubted their love.” – Nelson Mandela

“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

“We are connected to other human beings on this earth – genetically, historically. It’s like magnets, I may not know where the other end of the magnet is, but I’m being pulled to it. How can we answer anything about ourselves if we don’t know what our roots are, if we don’t know who our people are?” – Libby Copeland

Poems About Being Adopted

The Gap In My Heart

 

My quest is not over,

only postponed

For I must get on with my life,

yet I don’t know which way to turn

I feel as if I need her by my side,

where that gap lies.

I miss her yes,

I want her No,

for she was only my birth mother

she did not raise me to be who I am today,

I feel as If I should hate her

for giving me up

for making me feel this rollercoaster of emotions

yet I love her

and someday hope to find her

but not today for today;

I am searching for me and not for her. – Jori Victory

 

The Mirror of Myself

Many shun the mirror

hating it as if it were a living entity.

I, on the other hand, am obsessed with its possibilities.

What better sketch of her could I have?

Isn’t it her face that mine is half of?

I have stared long & hard

memorizing each feature, the curve of the brow

the very pattern of pores

spotted here and there with sun freckles

hoping to have instantaneous recognition when I meet her.

Yes, I will meet her, I know this in my soul.

But will reality reveal the lie of the mind’s mirror,

that I am her & she is me?

Will I find that I am my own person and

have been all along,

only needing validation that I am myself?

When you look into a mirror, what is reflected is eternity,

relinquishment clouds that

an arrogant silence upholding the greater good slowly binds it.

I want to see, will you help me? – Sonia Billadeau

 

Unrelenting Question

 

My mind is void of thoughts

As the water beats against my skin,

When that unrelenting question

Intrudes upon me once again.

 

Into a reality of discontent

I’m propelled from my retreat,

Consumed with an emptiness

And feeling incomplete.

 

My hand reveals a reflection

As I wipe away the steam,

I’m standing face to face

With my solitary being.

 

As the mirror begins to mist

The image returns my stare,

It’s obscure as my birthright

My identity, I’m unaware.

 

As I contemplate my creation

I am forced to use my mind's eye,

For I am known as Adopted

Forbidden to ask “Who am I?”

 

Searching for my roots

Is to some a mortal sin,

But I can’t help wondering

What my life would have been.

 

And that unrelenting question,

Intrudes upon me once again. – SL Norman

 

Red thread

 

There is a red thread between two different kinds of worlds,

One world with red dragons, incense, and lanterns I cannot remember,

I guess I lost her many years ago,

What she really was like, I will never ever know.

She changed very fast after I left her twenty years ago,

She is not the same anymore,

Neither am I,

We both changed in ways you can’t imagine,

Despite the distance, I still feel compassion.

There is a red thread crossing the big oceans and small seas,

All the way to the place I am right now; here,

This world I feel, smell, hear and see everyday,

It’s the world where I love, eat, work and pray.

This world taught and showed me so many beautiful things life has to offer,

I am living my dream because of her,

She gives me hope, freedom, and protection,

She gives me motivation and takes me to the right direction.

There is a red thread between two kinds of different worlds,

Both worlds taught me a different lesson,

One taught me my roots and family history,

While the other taught me to enjoy everyday cause the future is a big mystery. – “Happy Panda” blogger

 

 

Torn Pages

 

Most people have a story, starting the day they were born

But the beginning of my storybook, that special page was torn

I do not know my given name

I don’t know who or what to blame

But this page that was torn from the start

Was also torn from my heart.

The only way for my book to be finished

The only way the meaning won’t be diminished

The only way it can go back on the shelf

Is if I write the page myself.

As much I want this part to be mine,

The beginning of this story, I cannot define

It’s part of someone else’s book

It’s something I can’t overlook

Only she knows the start of this tale

When I try to tell it, I always fail

Now all I can do is think of what she would say

How she would remember it like it was yesterday

I want to imagine the world that she saw

And try to see her efforts, instead of her flaws

Sit down in her chair, and think with all my heart

And write everything down, right from the start:

 

“When I found out you were coming,

and I knew you’d have to leave

Wet tears ran down my face,

and I dried them with my sleeve

I sang a song to you each night

Before you had to leave my sight

Before you came out into the world

Before you became someone else’s little girl

Before my heart began to sink

Before adoption papers were written down in ink

Before a piece of me was gone

Before I admitted I’d have to move on

After I knew you could have been mine

After I knew I could have seen you shine

After I knew you were something I’d have to hide

After I became your star to guide

Your story wasn’t written out well

It might be one you won’t want to tell

I knew I could have written the rest

But I wanted your story to be its best

I don’t know what the rest of it will be

But I’ll always remember the time when you were part of me.” – Liana O’Rourke

 

Listen

 

Sixteen years ago on the streets of China

A two week old baby was left on the side of a

Busy road filled with

Cars and people rushing to and fro

No one stopping to hear the

Desperate music of a whimpering child

Like the street musician who

Plays his heart out but

Never gets noticed.

Brought to a

Cold dark orphanage

Too young to fully understand the

Situation she was thrown into

Like all the other little girls

Lined up in baby baskets

Along a white wall washed with

Tears of the abandoned little ones who

Didn’t have a place

Because they

Never even knew their parents.

She has no family

But what does that word mean anyway in a world where

Mothers abandon children and

Fathers leave home for a night of drinking?

She has a mother and a father

People she calls her parents who

Love her more than anyone would

Ever think someone could

Love something so different.

Growing up hurt, lost and

Asking big questions

Before the ones who have answers

Can think of proper responses

She likes to think herself a lost princess,

One who has mountains upon mountains of

Acceptance and love

Rather than money.

She yearns to be thought of as more than a mistake

Longs to be looked at with kindness rather than confusion

An exotic freak in a family of

Normal people.

She learns to accept the facts

Stops asking the questions that

No one seems to be able to answer

But though the truth hurts

A pebble can never shine without

Being turned over and over through the grindstone.

A bird can never fly without the question filled free-fall of

“What happens if I hit the ground?”

Spreading her wings and taking off,

She grows up independent

With a true family

One stronger than simply blood

With bonds created instead from pure love.

And when she comes across a street musician

Playing his heart out on the side of a busy road

She stops

And listens. – Leah Rosenzweig

 

Sharing

 

In the stillness of the morning -

In the hush before the dawn -

A cry screams through the silence -

And a new life has been born.

 

And she wonders what will happen -

To her newborn baby girl -

How she wishes she could keep her -

And protect her from the world.

 

But she knows that there are "others" -

Who would gladly give the world -

To have the chance to hold and love -

Her precious little girl.

 

And she prays to God for guidance -

As she holds that tiny hand -

With the desperate hope that someday -

Her child will understand.

 

So she bravely signs the papers -

And the tears fall from her eyes -

As she signs away her baby -

The light inside her dies.

 

One last kiss she gives her darling -

For the "others" have now come -

To claim the life she gave them -

Now a family has begun.

 

And with a heavy heart she watches -

As they hold "their" little girl -

How she wishes she could somehow share -

A small part of their world.

 

But she knows this will not happen -

That for her it cannot be -

And always she will wonder -

About the child she'll never see.

 

NOW the times, they are a'changing -

And a new dawn has begun -

Soon ALL will be together -

With new hope for everyone. – Elaine Rideau Tomlin

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