Adopt Connect
04.14.2021
When you are researching transracial adoption, It can be very overwhelming.
A lot of the articles/blogs of transracial adoptees are negative in a way..
Most feel like they struggle with their identity because of growing up in predominantly white communities.
As an adoptive parent thinking about transracial adoption, this can be discouraging.
-Christina, Author of her ‘Diary of a Not-So-Angry Asian Adoptee’ Blog
Christina is a Korean adoptee who was adopted by her Caucasian family when she was two years old.
“It is important to take great care in not losing yourself in the process when honoring my race and culture. While you won’t necessarily be able to teach me about my culture, you can and should teach me about yours. As a multicultural child, I will have so much more to offer the world.”
“If all the other avenues have been sought out, I don’t think it’s a negative thing for white families to adopt Indian children because I don’t think – I wouldn’t label my experience as negative,” said Denise Engstrom, a Tuscorora Native who was adopted by a white family in upstate New York. “I think there are some things I may have missed out on or that could have been done differently, but that doesn’t mean that I wasn’t raised in a good way.”
Read more here about the book, ‘In their own Voices: Transracial Adoptees Tell Their Stories,’ Engstrom was featured in.
I think it is pretty clear in the negative and positive experiences with transracial adoption that you cannot ignore your child’s race and culture.
For more things you ought to know about transracial adoption READ HERE.
“My parents are white and they raised me and they raised me well. I’m an African American woman and I don’t have and qualms about that. I know who I am and [there are] other transracial adoptive parents who have done the same thing where they have brought the culture of their child into their home in many ways. They have diversified their friends so that the child sees mirrors of their identity in other people…”