What Family Is To Me
Since birth, I have grown up with a different concept of family than
most people do. Instead of being born into my biological family, I was adopted
into my given family. I have known I was adopted, for as long as I can remember
because my parents made sure to tell me so, at the earliest age that I could
understand. By adopting me and my sister into the family, my parents showed
that family means love, respect and sacrifice. My adoption gave me a family to
belong to and be loved by.
Love is the first part in any family. I can be defined in more ways
than one. Family love is the strongest type because it is unconditional. This
unconditional love means that no matter what happens my family will still love
me. They have shown this love for twenty years now. And after all the things I
have done wrong, or done badly, my family still shows this unconditional love to
me and to each other.
The second part in a family is respect and trust. Trust is something
that can take years to build, but can be broken very easily. By breaking trust
with a family member one is also breaking respect of the family. The two ideas
go hand in hand. My parents respected me enough to tell me that I was adopted,
instead of lying to me and having me find out later in life that I wasn't their
biological son. This respect that my parents gave me, in turn gave me their
trust. And I gave them the respect and trust that was given to me.
Without sacrifice, a family cannot be. The sacrifices that family
members make for each other show the willingness to be an unselfish part of a
family. Sacrifices also display the love, respect and trust in a family. I
know that even though some of the time it may not seem that my parents would
sacrifice anything for me, I realize that they would do anything for and
everything for me and that I would do the same for them.
...he way love is performed and the price a family member might have to pay for the sake of the integrity of one’s family, at the end of the day, family will always be the people who loves us the most.
Beckett, Celia, Jenny Castle, Christine Sonuga-Barke, Colvert Edmund, and Stevens Jana. "The experience of adoption: a study of intercountry and domestic adoption from the child's point of view. Adoption and Fostering.
When I was a little kid I thought of my parents as the most amazing people in the world, to me they c...
Samuels, E. (2001). The Strange History of Adult Adoptee Access to Original Birth Records. Adoption Quarterly, 5(2), 63-74.
To begin, what led up to my adoption. This was very difficult part of my life, which began when my mom and my dad split up. They broke up when I was very little and my mom met a guy that I really did not like. He was a major alcoholic and always beat my mom, brother and I. There have been times that we tried to get away but he would seem to always find us. This was when finally my brother and I ran away and which caused us to
Societal attitudes toward adoption have made great advances since the 1900s, both in the understanding of the complexities of adoption and the acceptance of adoption as a positive path for children.
parents that among others things taught me to be true to my feelings and to
Adoption has been proven to be a motivator for children countless times. Adoption has miniscule, if any, health impacts on children. A study from Bethany Christian Services shows that health is not an issue. “Most children who are adopted lead healthy, normal lives” (Bethany Christian Services 1). The importance in this statement is the fact that adoption does not affect the health of the adopted child, at least majority of the time. Adoptees make up two percent of the world’s population. Out of that two percent, “5 percent of children are receiving outpatient mental health services, 10 to 15 percent of children are in residential treatment, and 6 to 9 percent of children who have learning disorders in the United States” (Bethany Christian Services 1). Furthermore, adoption shows signs of low self-esteem in the most rarity of cases. The Minnesota/Texas Adoption Research Project conducted studies to display the correlation in openness of adoption. “In the first wave of research when the children were between the ages of 4 and 12 with two thirds between ages 5.5 and 8.5 years the researchers have found there was no relationship found between adoption openness and self-esteem, either positively or negatively. Taking this new found intelligence in consideration, it can be concluded that overall, adoption hinders the health of children only in minority cases, and the...
National coordinator of National Adoptee Rights Day, founder of Voices of Adoption, and an adopted adult, Denise K. Castellucci argues that “adoption should never ask any human being to trade their…right to know the true facts of one’s own birth in return for a promise of a stable and loving home” (Ca...
If I were an adoptee, I would search for my mother. I look at my parents, and I can see where I get my intellect, humor, suspicious nature, impatience, height, etc. Even if she had passed away, I would just be grateful to gain some closure because I believe parents unconsciously/consciously shape the identity of the child. I am sure I would have been angry that I am adopted and that I was likely unwanted, but those thoughts would not deter
The best things in life come free to us. Our parents are one of the most important and fundamental in our life. However, people generally wonder, do adopted children feel the same way we do? Adoption is not easy, it's full of risks, simply because no one is aware of the future, the person adopting a child will never know how the child will react once he's aware he's adopted. Will they grow to love them, hate them, admire them or fear them? All of these unanswerable questions makes any person think twice before having the courage to adopt. Adoption never fails to put down any parents' feelings, whether they were homeless, abandoned, poor or runaway children and also families who don't have the option of being biological parents, the pleasure it gives to all of those people exceeds all of it's expected problems. However; adoption has some positive sides. It's one of life's fair treaties. It gives hope and integrity to the families who weren't fortunate to conceive; moreover, it changes the life of the child forever mostly positively. That's why many people support adoption worldwide.
...an sense that and begin to think that something is wrong with them or like they are not fitting in. For an adopted child, fitting in is a huge concern for them. Not only on the inside do they feel different, but on the outside they feel that they are not like other children because of who they parents are. They may also feel like they do not know who they really are because their birth is a missing piece of their life therefore they feel stranger to everyone. Being adopted can affect the child’s self esteem. However adopted children do not have to live their life with questions of the past holding them back. They can be just as successful as anybody else. For example Actor Jamie Foxx was adopted at the age 7 months. As long as we give them the same treatment, support, and opportunity to be somebody that will distract them from letting their past affect their future.
The word “family” is unique, special, and controversial among different cultures and ethnicities. As defined by Random House Western Dictionary, a family is “any group of persons closely related by blood, as parents, children, uncles, aunts, and cousins” (Dictionary.com). Although the definition from Random House follows the infamous proverb of, “blood is thicker than water,” my definition of family does not. Family is not defined or restricted by blood relations. In my mind, a family is simply a group of people, who loves, supports, and helps each other unconditionally, and endlessly. Regardless of one’s sexual orientation or preference, all families embody these common principles. Thus, a family unites its members through the strong bonds and kinships formed when people come together. (Great intro.)
When most people think of love they mentally picture Cinderella and her Prince Charming happily dancing off into the sunset. They think of Noah reading his documented love story to dementia riddled Allie in attempt to make her remember him. They picture Michelle Tanner and Uncle Jesse solving the world’s problems with nothing but a ‘you got it, Dude’. People associate love with happiness, but love is also pain. Picture Ronnie as she clings to her cancer-stricken father who was once her closest friend. Love can bring people together, but it can also tear them apart. Love is defined as “strong affection for another” but love is so much more (Love 1). Love cannot be simply defined as affection because it does not
Family is a value that my father taught me. He told me that family is