African American Adoption Success Stories

We are destined to be what we are told we are capable of being. Our four adopted children are bright, beautiful, respectful and happy. If I worry today about what tomorrow will bring, I'd be wasting today. Focus on the positive and your life will be more positive. There is negative in every aspect of life. I try to go there as seldom as possible.

Now Josie?! How'd you say it SO WELL!!!! LOL It's true. Make sure that you don't find yourself locked into one place to hear how there are so many disgruntled adoptees; or that growing up adopted means there'll be problems and heartaches, cause overall, it just isn't true for everyone. And, I suspect that compared to the general population (I know I've read this somewhere too)......adoptees have and have not---just as many issues as those who are biologicals. Anyway.......we've adopted eight. Five have been infants; three were older child adoptions. We were one of the horror stories for older child adoptions (long stories for another time and post); but two of the infants are now grown and on their own. They're great adults and successful people. The other three are still at home consisting of two pre-schoolers and one infant. The first two were adopted internationally and are Asian. The last three are AA. Dh and I are caucasian. It's been a wonderful journey through life as far as the infant adoptions have gone; and I'd encourage anyone to proceed if their heart tells them to do so. Sincerely, Linny

I am an African American adoptee and an adoptive mother. I am a strong confident woman who hopes to instill the same values that my adoptive parents did for me. I have a great relationship with my birth mother and we still talk today, 31 years later. I loved my adoptive parents until the day they both died.I believe that I am a success story, and God has protected me from what can happen to ANY child, adopted or not.

Well I'm an adult adoptee (I am not AA - I hope it's ok to still post!) I think I've done pretty well in life. I've had to deal with many things in life. My 18 year old is doing pretty well in life. He's had some struggles at times, so did I. Sure some of them had to do with adoption....abandonment issues. I would definitely not say that either of us are unhappy. Adoption is a part of my life, it's not what defines who I am. The thing is that everyone has their own path in life. We as parents can only do the very best we can at any given time. Different people relate to things in life very differently. It's unfortunate, but I think we end up seeing a very skewed view of things when we research such things online. I have to remind myself all the time that on message boards, email groups, websites...those who speak out are usually those with something they are dealing with. Those who are going along happily are probably not going to be seeking out support areas on the web. I rarely go into adoptee areas on the web. And it has NOTHING to do with denial or any of the other stuff that some will want to say. I'm not in denial about anything in life. I am someone who deals with things head on, gathers whatever tools I need to, and works through things. I'm just not interested in the victim mentality in regards to anything. I was abused as a child too...that also doesn't define who I am. I firmly believe that at some point in life we have to take responsibilities for our lives. We have all been dealt whatever we have been dealt. I don't say this to invalidate anyone else's experience. I realize that different people are in different places in life. But just as I would not want to invalidate someone else's experience...I am clear that my experiences are valid. I totally get where you are at OP. I remember posting something very similar. I asked for positive adoption stories. It just seemed that there was so much anti-adoption out there. And so much negativity about adoptive parents. I think it's really unbalanced and not very representational of real life.