A movement to “Flip the Script” on what some people perceive as “pro-adoption” thinking is underway for National Adoption Awareness Month. Following is a quote by Laura Barcella, from the NY Times Motherlode blog: ”

Flip the Script, a new YouTube video by an adoptee writing collective, The Lost Daughters, attempts to combat the damaging cultural narrative that centers exclusively on shiny, happy adoption experiences… For years on end, our culture has whitewashed adoption (both domestic and international), only telling the story from the rapturous perspective of adoptive parents while ignoring the darker realities adopted children can face.”

My reaction on reading: We searched for and found each of our children’s birth mothers, maintain contact, and visit them in Guatemala annually. Thousands of parents of children born in Guatemala (the community with which I am most familiar) do the same.

I may be in the minority (?), but I don’t see adoption simply as a “shiny, happy” experience. Nor do I know anyone who does. Adoption is far, far too complex for that. Adoptive parents like me–I hope–have learned from the experiences and writings of those who have gone before us–adoptees and birth mothers and fathers–as well as by living every day as adoptive parents.

We don’t simplify adoption. Our reality prevents us from simplifying adoption. Sometimes I wonder if people think we don’t “see” the challenges our children face. The struggles imposed on them by adoption. We get it. Or at least I do. And I don’t think I’m alone among adoptive parents.

ShareThis