Adoption: From an Adoptee’s Perspective

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Adoption: From an Adoptee's Perspective

November Is National Adoption Awareness Month

There are some really great resources and adoption stories about families and their young, adopted children. But my story is from the opposite side of the coin — I am one of those adopted children.

Family is a beautiful thing, plain and simple.

I grew up in small town Iowa as one of the few Asian Americans in the community and one of only a couple kids that I knew were adopted. I’ve always known that I was adopted and it never bothered me. In fact, it made me feel more special. When I was little, I got to celebrate June 3 as my adoption day. I got presents and I looked forward to June 3 every year. Now as an adult, I’m even luckier because June 3 is the day my son was born and gave me the gift of being his mom.

Many families choose to adopt for a multitude of reasons, but many also choose against adoption for a multitude of reasons. One of those reasons is because some parents are afraid of the excess baggage that sometimes comes with adopting: they hear stories of kids acting out or feelings of abandonment or of not belonging. I’m here to say that I am a sane, functioning member of society who has no real hang-ups aside from an inability to ever be on time.

But I want to tell you that while my story might be a Cinderella-adoption story, it is a true one. I love my adopted parents as the only parents I’ve ever known. While my birth mother might have given me life, my adoptive parents gave me the life I know and love. They are the ones who cheered me on through countless dance competitions, who footed my orthodontic bill to give me straight teeth, and who have shown me the love of a mom and dad. They are my parents — not my adopted parents or any other label you might want to give them.

So if you are thinking about adoption but are concerned that it might be hard, I’m here with a nugget of truth: parenting and life in general is hard.

You aren’t promised better kids if they are biologically your own. But I can promise that my life is as only as wonderful as it is by God’s grace and my parents choice to adopt me as their own.

Adoption: From an Adoptee's Perspective
My parents, my husband Lance, and me on vacation in Hawaii (pre-kids)
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Kara Knaack
Kara originally hails from northwest Iowa where she met her husband, Lance, through a 4-H fashion show. After a decade of living in central Iowa, Kara is still figuring out which way is north. Wearing the hat of “wife, mommy, employee, chef, ribbon tie-er and family calendar organizer,” Kara knows a bit about juggling life and work. Kara became a boy-mom in June of 2011 to Lucan and a girl-mom to Gracelyn in December of 2014. Most days you can find her mixing up metaphors and oversharing life’s moments via social media. Kara enjoys yoga, reading, gardening, cooking, sewing in straight lines and singing along to musicals. A spender by nature, but thrifty by necessity, Kara is always in hunt of a bargain. She’s an active member of Northpoint Church and a resident of Grimes. Her vision for life includes “doing the best we can with what God gives us.”

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