The decision to search for the now adult child you placed for adoption is a momentous one and requires adequate preparation. It is important to be clear what your reasons are for searching and to consider what the implications of a reunion might be to you, your family and to the adoptee.
Resource Category: Adoption
Post-Reunion Relationships
Post-reunion relationships change over time and, like all relationships, may need to be worked at. This may be ongoing over many years as life experiences can impact on your relationship with one another.
Adopted People Considering a Reunion
The decision to search for a birthparent often takes courage and requires adequate preparation. It is important to be clear what your reasons are for searching and how that may impact your birthparent.
What Adopting a White Girl Taught One Black Family
Most discussions about transracial adoption highlight white parents adopting kids of color, however transracial adoption refers to any adoption in which parents of one race adopt a child of a different race. Resources for non-whit adoptive parents are scarce.
Off and Running
When Avery decides to pick up the pieces of her life and make sense of her identity, the results are inspiring. OFF AND RUNNING follows Avery to the brink of adulthood, exploring the strength of family bonds and the lengths people must go to become themselves.
Closure Documentary
Angela, an African-American, was raised by a Caucasian couple in a large, multiracial family in Washington State. She was adopted at the age of one from foster care in the state of Tennessee, under the terms of a closed adoption. As Angela grew older it became apparent that the unanswered questions about her birth story would continue to haunt her if she did not attempt to find some answers.
The Adopted Life Episodes
This series, hosted by Angela Tucker, features interviews with teen and pre-teen transracial adoptees to bring awareness and education to the public about complex issues such as racial identity formation, searching for and having open relationships with birth/biological families, and, in some cases, having little to no information about one’s biological families.
White Privilege: Unpacking The Invisible White Knapsack
McIntosh describes white privilege vividly and powerfully as the idea of an invisible weightless knapsack of special provisions and more. In other words, a white person in the United States has on his or her back an invisible weightless knapsack granting favored positions, status, acceptance, and more.
10 Ways to Identify Racism
Both in schools and out, young children are exposed to racist and sexist attitudes. These attitudes – expressed over and over in textbooks and other media – gradually distort their perceptions until stereotypes and myths are accepted as reality. The 10 guidelines in this document are offered as a starting point in evaluation children’s books.