It has not always been the case, but for the last decade, being adopted has been a huge part of my identity, as well as my work. I have written articles, attended conferences, sat on boards, spoken on panels, lead adopted youth groups, volunteered, researched, studied, read, and blogged adoption.
And I have a confession to make.
In all this time, I have never had a meaningful discussion with my parents about adoption.
Read the rest of this entry »
Over 125 adoptees, adoptive parents, birthparents, adoption professionals, adoptive family members, and community members came together on Thursday to watch Adoption Mosaic’s screening of the film Adopted.
It was an incredible evening and clearly the discussion after the film could have lasted much longer than what we had time for. This multi-faceted film brings up so many important issues surrounding adoption. If you watched this movie with us at this event, at Adoption Mosaic’s Movie Night, or if you’ve seen it on your own, how has Adopted impacted you?
Also, be sure to check out our interview with co-producer Nancy Kim Parsons to get a deeper understanding of the people and processes behind the documentary.
The Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute has just released the largest and most comprehensive study on adoptee identity formation ever published. Their 113 page research study Beyond Culture Camp: Promoting Healthy Identity Formation in Adoption was based on 468 surveys of adult adoptees, research analysis, and relevant literature, and includes several recommendations based on their research.
From the Executive Summary:
This ground-breaking study by the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute, to our knowledge, constitutes the largest, most extensive examination of identity development in adopted adults in the U.S. And it does so by asking the experts – adult adoptees – about the experiences, strategies and choices that promote positive identity development. Too often, our understanding of identity, particularly of those adopted across race/ethnicity, has been formed through research only on children and youth. Similarly, conclusions about identity in transracial adoption too often have come from the perspective of parents, not adoptees themselves. The Institute’s study focuses on adult adopted persons, gaining their understanding of how they have integrated “being adopted” and their race/ethnicity with other aspects of themselves that, together, form an identity.
The New York Times reported on the study the day before it’s release, and since then many others have weighed in on blogs, in editorials and articles. What are your thoughts?
Eugene based Adoption Connections of Oregon is holding their annual conference in Eugene, Oregon this weekend. Our own Shelise Giseke will be doing an Adoption in the Classroom presentation at the conference. You can watch her KVAL News interview here.
We’ve been blogging here at Adoption Mosaic since July of 2008, but we’ve never specifically spelled out our purpose- at least not publicly. Livia, Astrid and I, have spent hours in off-line conversations discussing the mission of our blog and our website. We’ve talked about it over email and conference calls, over coffee and during knitting nights, but we’ve never blogged about it until now. Read the rest of this entry »