Quotes about adoption
Abhijit Naskar - Human Making is Our Mission: A Treatise on Parenting
If you are financially affluent, think of adopting a kid and raise him or her right next to your biological offspring. And let your love become the proof of your parenthood, instead of your DNA.
J.I. Packer - Knowing God
What is less often noticed is that it is precisely the kind of moral instruction that parents are constantly trying to give their children — concrete, imaginative, teaching general principles from particular instances, and seeking all the time to bring the children to appreciate and share the parent's own attitudes and view of life… The all-embracing principles of conduct
Laura Anderson Kurk - Perfect Glass
I reached down and picked up a baseball bat at my feet and I flung it as hard as it could. It circled and arced high in the air until it slammed against the side of the dining hall with a crack and fell.I sat down in the dirt. Then I lay down in the dirt.Because not only was there no trail to follow, there was no evidence he’d ever been here.There was no evidence any of them had been here.
John Calvin - 2 Vols
It is now clear that faith is a singular pledge of paternal love, treasured up for the sons whom he has adopted.
Mokokoma Mokhonoana -
One of the main functions of a push-up bra is to lower the number of mothers who seem like mothers.
DaShanne Stokes -
Blood can help make family, but family often transcends blood.
DaShanne Stokes -
People think that LGBTs adopting children will hurt them, but it's not being in loving homes that hurts children most.
T.F. Hodge - From Within I Rise: Spiritual Triumph Over Death and Conscious Encounters with "The Divine Presence"
Regarding beliefs and belief systems: We argue what and how we feel, rather than what we - actually - know or assume to be facts or factual evidence. Thus, it is justifiably prudent to challenge that which has been adopted or enforced by tradition. If such examination is discouraged by fearful tactics - we must not shy away from soulful searching.
Natalie Brenner - This Undeserved Life: Uncovering The Gifts of Grief and The Fullness of Life
I must acknowledge that though his adoption embodies graciousness, it is also a reminder this world is not as it should be. Brokenness permeates our world. Sure, beauty is born from ashes, but the ashes don't just magically disappear. Suffering and all that is wrong in this world still exists. This side of heaven, tragedy remains and the moments of her son becoming ours is a representation of joy and suffering deeply intertwined. Our son, the living proof and blessing that love is what makes a f
Allison Scott - Spiritual Chat on: Death and the Loss of a Loved One: Book 1 of Spiritual Chat on Practical Matters the Series
You create your own reality
Abby Norman -
The pain will always be in you — but you will not always be in pain.
Abby Norman -
I saw the bruises, the burns, the cuts— I knew which ones had been done to you by someone you thought you could trust. Someone you thought loved you. I knew which ones you gave yourself.
Eleanor Brownn -
Your ancestors are rooting for you.
Jeanette Winterson - Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?
Adoption is outside. You act out what it feels like to be the one who doesn't belong. And you act it out by trying to do to others what has been done to you. It is impossible to believe anyone loves you for yourself.I never believed that my parents loved me. I tried to love them but it didn't work. It has taken me a long time to learn how to love - both the giving and the receiving. I have written about love obsessively, forensically, and I know/knew it as the highest value.I loved God of course
Daven Anderson - Vampire Syndrome
If we adopted Jack," I quip, "we'd have to give him combat pay for an allowance
Steve Pemberton - and How He Found a Place Called Home
What makes a family is neither the absence of tragedy nor the ability to hide from misfortune, but the courage to overcome it and, from that broken past, write a new beginning.
Heather Avis - The Lucky Few: Finding God's Best in the Most Unlikely Places
Today I'm aware of all the times I have said no to opportunities God has placed before me because I think I'm not rich enough, equipped enough, talented enough, strong enough, or crazy enough to say yes. All the times I have mistaken good things for bad. All the times I have allowed the opinions of an ignorant majority to guide my thinking instead of looking to Jesus and his heart in the matter. I wonder how many times we, his children, choose a comfortable no over a terrifying yes - the kind of
Sherrie Eldridge - Twenty Things Adopted Kids Wish Their Adoptive Parents Knew
Listen to your hearts, parents! You are the expert when it comes to knowing your child. I love the Scripture that says we are to let the peace of God rule in our hearts...In other words, peace in your heart is to be like an umpire calling the shots. When in doubt--DON'T!
Susan May Warren - Baroness
It's because when God adopts you into His family, you belong to Him. He stamps His name on you. A name that comes with His protection. And His birthright, which is eternity and the power to live with joy on this earth.
Diamond Mike Watson - and a Birthmother
The life of an adoptee is like an ancient voyager who searches for the unknown. The stars guided their destiny. They had their sights on the wonders that lay ahead of them. An adoptee travels in the opposite direction.
Diana Gabaldon - The Fiery Cross
For my sake,” he said firmly, addressing the air in front of him as though it were a tribunal, “I dinna want ye to bear another child. I wouldna risk your loss, Sassenach,” he said, his voice suddenly husky. “Not for a dozen bairns. I’ve daughters and sons, nieces and nephews, grandchildren—weans enough.”He looked at me directly then, and spoke softly.“But I’ve no life but you, Claire.”He swallowed audibly, and went on, eyes fixed on mine.“I did think, though . . . if ye do want another child .
Seth Adam Smith - Rip Van Winkle and the Pumpkin Lantern
Thus bound together, they sheltered the child from the cold, dark night, enveloping him in warmth.
Karen Fowler - Reflections on Motherhood
My life has been shaped by the decision two people made over 24 years ago. They decided to adopt a child. They got me, and I got a chance at the kind of life all children deserve.
Jane Green - Another Piece of My Heart
They had always dreamed of a large family but have now realized that they would be equally blessed to have even one child.
Jodi Picoult - Handle with Care
Was it the act of giving birth that made you a mother? Did you lose that label when you relinquished your child? If people were measured by their deeds, on the one hand, I had a woman who had chosen to give me up; on the other, I had a woman who'd sat up with me at night when I was sick as a child, who'd cried with me over boyfriends, who'd clapped fiercely at my law school graduation. Which acts made you more of a mother?Both, I realized. Being a parent wasn't just about bearing a child. It was
Kate DiCamillo - The Magician's Elephant
There," she said. She rocked him back and forth. "There, you foolish, beautiful boy who wants to change the world. There, there. And who could keep from loving you? Who could keep from loving a boy so brave and true?
Mokokoma Mokhonoana -
Dating a wo/man with a child is adoption … without the paperwork.
Jody Cantrell Dyer - The Eye of Adoption: The True Story of My Turbulent Wait for a Baby
Adoption is the most intentional process on Earth.
Laura Anderson Kurk - Perfect Glass
I really want to believe that when our Quiet Waters kids wake up in the middle of the night, scared, they’ll remember being in their bunks with John and Kate and Whit and me right there protecting them,” he said. “I hope we gave them that sense of belonging because I know there’ll be times in their lives when grasping at those bonds could mean the difference between making it and not.
Laura Anderson Kurk - Perfect Glass
He was taking a leap here, negotiating with a crackhead, under the table, in a dark cantina. The courage etched on his face came from loving Aidia so much he’d close his eyes and walk through fire to see her safe.
Ramez Naam - Crux
But Nita had always seen having a child as selfish. Why bring another soul into this world, she'd say, when there are so many out there that need our help?
Katha Pollitt -
Our society encourages women to place a very high value on maternity as an essential part of female identity, both a high moral calling and the deepest source of satisfaction on earth. It's not easy to redefine motherhood as handing your baby over to a stranger.
DaShanne Stokes -
Discovering that I was adopted redefined my entire world, but it taught me that who you are doesn't change.
DaShanne Stokes -
Being denied their original birth certificates isn't just a problem for adoptees. It's a social problem, requiring social change.
DaShanne Stokes -
Laws forbidding adoptees from accessing their original birth certificates are outdated and need to be changed today.
Mokokoma Mokhonoana -
The answer to the question ‘How many children do you have?’ and the one to the question ‘How many children are you raising?’ are not identical in all cases: some men are not taking care of their own children, some are knowingly or unknowingly raising other men’s children, and some do not even know that they each have a child, another child, or other children.
Jeanette Winterson - Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?
So when people say that poetry is a luxury, or an option, or for the educated middle classes, or that it shouldn't be read in school because it is irrelevant, or any of the strange and stupid things that are said about poetry and its place in our lives, I suspect that the people doing the saying have had things pretty easy. A tough life needs a tough language - and that is what poetry is. That is what literature offers - a language powerful enough to to say how it is. It isn't a hiding place. It
Adele Rickerby - The Promise I Kept
our country is poor but our hearts are rich
DaShanne Stokes -
Adoption isn't just a childhood experience, it's a life-long experience.
J.R. Tompkins - Price of the Child
What would it be like to feel so attached, so intrinsically bonded, so protective of one’s own best connection with time and the ages, of generations past and future, of another human life, of their time?
Kelly Rosati - Wait No More: One Family's Amazing Adoption Journey
If every Christian family in the United States would simply commit to pray and ask God if HE wants to use them to bless a child without a family, well, we'd change the world. If we can get the church to think about adoption not in terms of the desires of adults but in terms of the needs of children, I think we'd see on a much grander scale how God sets the lonely in families.
John Irving - The Cider House Rules
No one but me ever put a hand on me to feel that baby. No one wanted to put his ear against it and listen...You shouldn't have a baby if there's no one who wants to feel it kick or listen to it move.
Sunday Adelaja -
If you don’t have your own identity, you will adopt the brand of another
DaShanne Stokes -
What matters most is not 'what' you are, but 'who' you are.
Elizabeth Miyu Blake - GreenBean: True Blue Family
We live in one world together. It's more important than ever to be friend to all.
Beau Sides - Unseen Tears: The Challenges of Orphans and Orphanages in China
Happiness is a conscious choice we make for ourselves. It has to come from within.
DaShanne Stokes -
Adoptees deserve open records because deception and partial truths do not set us free.
Kathleen Silber - Dear Birthmother
Since we have had this baby with us, I have never again wondering why I never got pregnant. There is no doubt in my mind that God, in His wonderful way, was saving us to be the parents of this wonderful little boy.
Kathleen Silber - Dear Birthmother
Adoption is a wonderful way of becoming a family. If being a biological parent is any better or more rewarding than being an adoptive parent, I really don't think I could stand it!
Jody Cantrell Dyer - The Eye of Adoption: The True Story of My Turbulent Wait for a Baby
Adoption is a beautiful, burdensome blessing.
Scott Simon - We Were Meant for Each Other: In Praise of Adoption
Fifteen-year-old girls produce children with sixteen-year-old boys in the backseat of cars and in the stairwells of apartment buildings. Why can't two loving adults who have contemplated parenthood and are prepared to offer love, patience, and devotion come up with enough chromosomal matter to stick together and create a child?
Donnie Kanter Winokur -
While our life remains more chaotic than not, we continue to land on our blistered feet, drag each other out of the quicksand, beg for forgiveness as we wander out of the doghouse, and dig for the humor beneath our grief. So our family, four-pawed members included, continues to bound forward celebrating our canine connection and sharing hope with all who need healing.
Sherrie Eldridge - Twenty Things Adopted Kids Wish Their Adoptive Parents Knew
I believe one of the most sacrificial acts of love adoptive parents can do is to give up their preconceptions and agendas about what their child's views "should" be and be open to hear the conflicting emotions and thoughts their child often experiences.
Deborah A. Beasley - Successful Foster Care Adoption
That so many thousands of children around the world are available for adoption is a sign of our impoverished humanity. That so many persons around the world open their hearts and homes each year to embrace a few of these children is a lasting testimony to humanity's enduring nobility.
Kathleen Silber - Dear Birthmother
The adoptee benefits because his collective parents are permitted to grow secure in their particular roles in his life. His adoptive parents are not unwittingly encouraged to compete to possess him. Nor are his birth parents punished and banished from a place in his life.
Diamond Mike Watson - and a Birthmother
The wrinkled pages of the Bible crackled as Mom leafed back to the beginning of Matthew. I had always felt I was conceived from the powers of the universe. Maybe I was chosen to fulfill a divine mission.
Natalie Corbett Sampson - Game Plan
We could adopt. there are lots of kids out there who could grow up to hate us as much as any kid we could make
Beth Willis Miller - Under His Wings...healing truth for adoptees of all ages
Those who are wounded wound others. Moses was wounded profoundly when he lost his birth family, his heritage, and his history. In the years to come, he would come to know Jehovah-rophe, the Healer of life’s sicknesses and sorrows. Exodus 15: 26b says, “…for I am the Lord, who heals you.” (from Under His Wings: Healing Truth for Adoptees of All Ages)
Beth Willis Miller - Under His Wings...healing truth for adoptees of all ages
Moses needed to learn that God was Jehovah-tsidkenu—the One who is righteous and the source of true acceptance. The staff was symbolic of Moses’ life. God was asking him to let go of it—to give complete control to him. When Moses picked it up, it was no longer his life but the very life of God…Just like Moses, until we yield control of our lives to Jesus Christ, it is impossible to see ourselves through God’s eyes. Try as we may, we will never see our worth through accomplishments or the opinion
Mike L. Hopper - Broken Point
Some adventures should never be repeated.
Azelene Williams - INFERTILITY Road to Hell and Back
The children we bring into the world are small replicas of ourselves and our husbands; the pride and joy of grandfathers and grandmothers. We dream of being mothers, and for most of us that dreams are realised naturally. For this is the Miracle of Life.
Brad Meltzer - The Inner Circle
She wasn't tracking down her father to learn more about him. She was tracking him down to learn more about herself.
OMOSOHWOFA CASEY -
According to H.G. Wells, you either adapt or perish, now as ever, is nature’s inexorable imperative. It is not necessary to change, after all survival is not mandatoryThis generation might seem arrogant to the older generation due to some reasons. The older generation believes an older person or someone of higher authority is always right and being sceptical is an insult, lolOur generation is full of people who are so skeptical, they wanna know why this is this and that is that, they don't just
Tara Michener - 100% Real: A Who I Am Book
I don't know anyone who remembers meeting their parents when they were a baby so i'm just like everybody else. -Zoey (100% Real)
Tara Michener - 100% Real: A Who I Am Book
You are real! Everyone has to be different or the world would be really boring. If we all looked the same, then no one could tell us apart. -Janelle
Israelmore Ayivor -
A role model is a person whose roles can be modelled. If the roles you conceive and give birth to today cannot be adopted by anyone in your absence, you are no good model.
Peter Dodds - Outer Search Inner Journey
Peter Friedrich, wer bin ich? Peter Frederick, who am I? German or American? The answer was neither and both. I had German blood but an American mentality.This trip allowed me to understand that a man can make his home where ever he chooses. If I wanted, I could live happily in America. My heart fought and pleaded, saying it wasn't true, that I was German, and only in Germany would I be content. In one of the few times in my life, intellect overruled emotion. Germany wasn't the key to my happine
James Arminius -
Predestination therefore, as it regards the thing itself, is the Decree of the good pleasure of God in Christ, by which He resolved within Himself from all eternity, to justify, adopt, and endow with everlasting life, to the praise of His own glorious grace, believers on whom He had decreed to bestow faith.
Ivanka Trump -
I think my mom threatened to put me up for adoption a few times.
Liane Moriarty - What Alice Forgot
And even though I adore the fact that Francesca has Ben's eyes, I also see now that her biological connection to us is irrelevant. She is her own little person. She is Francesca. If we weren't her "natural" parents, we would still have loved her just as much.
Debra Shiveley Welch -
I firmly believe that I have received the same child I was meant to receive, whether I gave birth or adopted. The same soul, the same entity, was meant to be mine, from the beginning of time.
C. Baxter Kruger - The Great Dance: The Christian Vision Revisited
Justification has so dominated the landscape of Christian thought that adoption has been marginalized. We don't hear much about our adoption at all. We hear a lot about forgiveness, but very little about the staggering reality of our inclusion in Jesus' relationship with his Father in the Spirit.
Kelly DiBenedetto - Adoption Is a Lifelong Journey
Adoption is a lifelong journey. It means different things to me at different times. Sometimes it is just a part of who I am. Other times it is something I am actively going through.
Laura Dennis -
The word, 'issues,' is perhaps a misnomer, a gross understatement, or a pale and withered description for very real psychological illnesses and emotional losses. Nevertheless, "post-adoption issues" is a catch-all phrase, and at least it avoid pathologizing adoptees.
Jeanette Winterson - Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?
The baby explodes into an unknown world that is only knowable through some kind of a story - of course that is how we all live, it's the narrative of our lives, but adoption drops you into the story after it has started. It's like reading a book with the first few pages missing. It's like arriving after curtain up. The feeling that something is missing never, ever leaves you - and it can't, and it shouldn't, because something IS missing. That isn't of its nature negative. The missing part, the m
J.D. Stroube -
I took my menial life for granted until it became clear, why my early years resulted in a lack of adoption.- J.D. Stroube (Rival: Prelude to the Mirage Chronicles.)
Ellen Klages - Uncanny Magazine Issue 3: March/April 2015
This is overdue. Quite a bit, I'm afraid. I apologize. We moved to Topeka when I was very small, and Mother accidentally packed it up with the linens. I have traveled a long way to return it, and I know the fine must be large, but I have no money. As it is a book of fairy tales, I thought payment of a first-born child would be acceptable. I always loved the library. I'm sure she'll be happy there.
Natalie Brenner - This Undeserved Life: Uncovering The Gifts of Grief and The Fullness of Life
I love them both as though I birthed them both, but also as though I adopted them both.
DaShanne Stokes -
If the system were designed to protect adoptees, why do so many have to fight for their rights?
Jody Cantrell Dyer - The Eye of Adoption: The True Story of My Turbulent Wait for a Baby
Adoption is grief in reverse.
Donna K. Childree -
If you should choose to look at those files, you will have to live with the consequences of your choices while, at the same time, being mindful that these choices will not only effect you, but will also infect, sorry, I intended to say effect, our entire family.
Seth Adam Smith - Rip Van Winkle and the Pumpkin Lantern
There's nothing more important in this world than caring for a child.
Donna K. Childree -
You were tossed away like a pair of beautiful, brand new shoes that did not quite fit.
DaShanne Stokes -
Adoptee rights are everyone's rights, and they deserve to be protected.
Hannah Sulfridge -
If you are going to start, don't quit. But if you are going to quit, don't even start!
DaShanne Stokes -
It's illegal to deny people their records due to race or gender. Adoptees deserve the same rights and protections.
Soojung Jo - Ghost of Sangju
...I am about eight years old when I first become aware of being other--foreign, outside, separate. Because this lesson comes from my own family, it resonates deeper and truer than playground taunts ever have.
Judith Land - Adoption Detective: Memoir of an Adopted Child
Destiny is not always preordained. Life is about making choices. Our lives are the sum of all the choices we make, the bridges we cross, and the ones we burn. Our souls cast long shadows over many people, even after we are gone. Fate, luck, and providence are the consequence of our freedom of choice, not the determinants. When justice is served by following our principles, making good decisions brings us inner peace.
Soojung Jo - Ghost of Sangju
You had nightmares every night for a long time and screamed in Korean words, but we didn't know what they meant. I asked someone who knew Korean, and he said it was um-ma um-ma, the word for mom.
Soojung Jo - Ghost of Sangju
I'm ready for the day when Mom loves me too much to keep me, and for every other person who will someday see that I'm not worth holding on to.
Soojung Jo - Ghost of Sangju
I don't understand this--when people love you so much they are willing to get rid of you. I think if I loved someone that much I'd want to stay with them. It doesn't make sense that love would make a mother leave, and I wonder when this mother will love me that much too. I get the idea that love might be something to both desire and fear, and maybe if we don't love each other too much I won't have to go away again. I wonder why love works for everyone else, but it doesn't work for me.
Soojung Jo - Ghost of Sangju
Having a blood family means suddenly revising a definition of family that I have, over many years, learned to accept. How can I hold both concepts in my mind or find room for both families in my heart?
John Hagel III -
Pull approaches differ significantly from push approaches in terms of how they organize and manage resources. Push approaches are typified by "programs" - tightly scripted specifications of activities designed to be invoked by known parties in pre-determined contexts. Of course, we don't mean that all push approaches are software programs - we are using this as a broader metaphor to describe one way of organizing activities and resources. Think of thick process manuals in most enterprises or sta
Kate Mulgrew - Born with Teeth
You need to call on your best and strongest self.
Valerie Harper -
However motherhood comes to you, it's a miracle.
Natalie Nichols Gillespie - Successful Adoption: A Guide for Christian Families
Every November on National Adoption Day, courts set aside time to finalize adoptions from foster care that might otherwise be delayed for months, and communities celebrate adoption with retreats, proclamations, and other events. National Adoption Day was started in 2000 and has grown each year. In 2004, courts and community organizations finalized the adoptions of more than 3,400 children from foster care as part of 200 National Adoption Day events in 37 states.
Thomas Drummond -
I wish to be buried in Ireland, the country of my adoption a country which I loved, which I have dutifully served, and for which I believe I have sacrificed my life.
Sarah Pekkanen - Catching Air
She felt a lump form in her throat, and she swallowed hard. She wouldn't have this-the swollen ankles and pink cheeks and the feel of that glorious, curving belly under the palm of her hand-but she could still be a mother. That was the important thing.
P.R. Newton - Shattered Embrace
Women are like trees, growing slowly over time. So many rings creating layers of maturity as their branches spread and reach out to the sky. Motherhood prunes those branches. Sometimes it prunes them back hard and painfully. But if you let go and trust in the good of what it means to be a mother, if you can trust in the knowledge learned from the hard lessons, then faith and belief will carry you through. And in the end, you will grow fuller and more beautiful from the, sometimes harsh, pruning