We have a lot of readers who either want to adopt children or are in the process of adopting. Based on your experiences with adoption, do you have any advice for them? Or are there things you wish you knew when you went through the process of adopting your children?
Adoption is a very complicated road filled with incredibly emotional and challenging aspects. At its core, adoption is about loss. It’s one that needs a lot of good support for everybody, so that everyone is clear about the feelings that are being stirred up for everyone. Birthdays, for instance, are very hard for adopted children. For everyone else it’s a celebration of the moment of birth, but for adopted children, it’s the remembrance of a birth family that they don’t have. So it’s complicated terrain but still a beautiful way to make a family. You have to just be really open to all sides of it.
Talking about adoption, birthparents, abandonment, race, and China with my kids. That's not all we talk about -- but reading this blog, you'll think it's all we do!!!!!
Monday, October 3, 2011
Jamie Lee Curtis: Adoption is about loss
Jamie Lee Curtis, actress, author of Tell Me Again About the Night I Was Born (among other children's books), and adoptive parent, had this to say about adoption in an interview at Parents blog:
M loves Jamie Lee Curtis and her books. I like her because she is real and down to earth. She tells it like it is.
ReplyDeleteI think a lot of what she says is both grounded and accurate.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I would refrain from sweeping judgements. She is the mother of 2, not of all adopted children. Birthdays were never difficult for me and to my knowledge several other AA's I know have/had no viseral response at birthdays. Or nothing beyond normal.
For me tough moments crept in at unexpected times and those can sometimes be the hardest as they are hard to prepare for; her statements, while valid for her children perhaps, are not reprentative of the whole.
In fact, it would might have been better to have simply reminded folks that all adoptions/adoptees are unique.
:) Overall though, I applaud the efforts!
P.S. I also wonder if perhaps this is a difference between domestic/internationally adopted children? Interesting.....
KAA
out of all the celebrities out there, I always thought Jamie Lee Curtis was more down to earth about her family and adoption...maybe she isn't, but she seems to be thoughtful about it.
ReplyDeleteShe lost me at Activia.
ReplyDeleteAgree with both Wendy and Linda. Activia didn't work for me, but I know you don't want me to go into the details.
ReplyDelete