Adoption stories are amazing. Whether you are a birth mother, adoptive parent or adoptee, you have lived a truly unique journey. We believe your story can be a beacon of hope for others.
The adoptive community is an especially tight-knit group. What you experience is unlike most other journeys. Relatively few people can truly understand. By telling your story, you give others who have experienced adoption personally a sense of community and you help spread awareness to those who do not know much about adoption.
We’d love to help. Our media team regularly works with birth parents, adoptive parents and adoptees to create and share their journeys. If you’d like to get involved, you can email editors@americanadoptions.com to learn more.
With that said, you should only share your adoption story when you are ready. This is a private, complicated part of your life. How do you know if it’s right to share — and how much to share?
Here are three questions to ask as you evaluate whether or not right now is a good time to share your story.
Have I Resolved My Complicated Emotions Surrounding My Journey?
Life is continual growth. No one ever simply “arrives” and has all of the answers. However, you can reach a sense of peace in the way you understand your adoption history. Through reading, conversation and potentially counseling, many have worked through the hard parts of their stories to find meaning and purpose.
Is this true of where you are today? If not, that is okay. We are all working on our own timelines. If you have yet to reach a place of peace in relation to your adoption, it may not be time to tell your story yet.
On the other hand, you may feel proud of your adoption story and believe it can provide hope and meaning to others. If so, now could be a great time to share it.
Do You Want to be an Advocate for Adoption?
The general public’s awareness of adoption is better than it used to be. Even still, there’s a profound lack of knowledge about how the process works and the long-lasting effects of adoption on an individual’s life.
Does advocating for adoption through educating others appeal to you? If not, then it may not be right to tell your story.
Experiencing something unique does not mean you must publicly identify with that experience. Your life is your own, and it is up to you how much of it you would like to share. Some birth parents, adoptive parents and adoptees are reluctant to let adoption become the defining label in their lives. This is always understandable.
Others are excited by the opportunity to speak from a vantage point that relatively few people can. You are an expert on your own life — a life that can help others understand beautiful truths about adoption. Through telling your story, you can become an advocate for adoption.
Do You Want to Help Others on Their Adoption Journeys?
Some choose to tell their adoption story to increase awareness and understanding of adoption in the general population. Others are interested in supporting the smaller adoption community.
Have you found solace, community and hope by reading or watching the adoption stories of others? You could provide these things for someone else when you decide to share your journey.
In moments of emotional turmoil, the most helpful thing to hear is oftentimes, “I understand.” For those who are still processing their stories and working out their identities in light of adoption, your story could be that supportive voice to them.
“I understand. I’ve been there too. There is goodness and beauty and hope in my story, and there can be in yours, too.”
You may not be in a place to say this yet. You may still need to hear it from others. But, if you are ready for your story to be a place of safety for others, telling it with American Adoptions could be a great opportunity.
Tell Your Story with American Adoptions
Our team is made up of people from all walks of life. Adoptive parents, birth moms and adoptees work throughout American Adoptions, bringing real-life perspective to the work we do. Members of our staff have decided to tell their own stories, and we know we represent only a small slice of the lived experiences of the adoption community.
That’s why we want to help you tell your story.
Do any of the questions above resonate with you? Are you at a place of peace, ready to be an advocate or a source of inspiration? We would love to help you share your journey.
Contact us today by emailing editors@americanadoptions.com to begin the process of sharing your adoption story.
You can also read more adoptive family stories, birth parent stories and adoptee stories.
My wife is the product of an in-family adoption and has recently gotten access to her adoption papers. She has discovered the rationale behind her birth parent’s decision to seek adoption for her. Sadly, she not only experienced rejection by her birth parents but also by her adopted family and at twelve years old was returned to live with her birth mother who had remarried and had started a second family. Actions and verbal abuse by her birth mother until she reached the age of adulthood caused anxieties and disappointment reinforced later in life by family members who would not provide the opportunity for any sense of closure. How, as her husband, can I provide her support and are there support groups who also may be of assistance?
Thank you so much for your response.