“Reunion has taught me that there is no way to remake your history or your family in the image you want. But there can be more, if you are willing to look for those stories that were lost - you might just find someone new to forgive, to love, to grow with. Someone to take your hand and search *with* you.” FamilyAdoptionReunion Book:All You Can Ever Know Source: All You Can Ever Know
“If families like mine were better understood, if more people knew that adoption was far more complicated than common media portrayals might suggest, maybe fewer adopted kids would have to answer the kinds of questions I had gotten, or feel pressured to uphold sunny narratives even they might not necessarily believe in.” AdoptionAapiTransracial Adoption Book:All You Can Ever Know Source: All You Can Ever Know
“so when people asked me about my family, my features, the fate I’d been dealt, maybe it isn’t surprising how I answered — first in a childish, cheerful chirrup, later in the lecturing tone of one obliged to educate. I arrive to be calm and direct, never giving anything away in my voice, never changing the details. Offering the story I’d learned so early was, I thought, one way to gain acceptance. It was both the excuse for how I looked, and a way of asking pardon for it.” BelongingAdoptionTransracial AdoptionCrossracialTransracial Book:All You Can Ever Know Source: All You Can Ever Know
“I shook my head a little, not disagreeing so much as acknowledging the impossibility of ever knowing: it was hard to say, three decades later, what would have been best for the largest number of people.” AdoptionTransracial Adoption Book:All You Can Ever Know Source: All You Can Ever Know