Adopted Quotes

“Yes, we've given them the benefit of the doubt. But, isn't it time (for once in our lives) to give ourselves the benefit of the doubt?”
― Janine Myung Ja, Adoption Stories

“There are people who need our stories. These individuals are just hidden from our view. We need to put ourselves out there because maybe our stories will validate theirs.”
― Janine Myung Ja, Adoption Stories

“I'm glad you were both here," I finally manage, thinking how strange it is to be standing with the two people who made you, something most kids take for granted every day of their lives.”
― Emily Giffin, Where We Belong

“Right. Seven years have passed with the Gaumonts, so that excuse of being ‘new’ isn’t going to work anymore.”
― Misba, The High Auction

“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.”
― Kelly DiBenedetto, Adoption Is a Lifelong Journey

“Leda was struck by how much Avery reminded her of Atlas. They weren’t related by blood, and yet they had the same white-hot intensity. When they turned the full force of their attention on you, it was as blinding as looking into the sun.”
― Katharine McGee, The Thousandth Floor

“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?”
― Ramez Naam, Crux

“Adoption isn't just a childhood experience, it's a life-long experience.”
― DaShanne Stokes

“Adoptees deserve open records because deception and partial truths do not set us free.”
― DaShanne Stokes

“Laws forbidding adoptees from accessing their original birth certificates are outdated and need to be changed today.”
― DaShanne Stokes

“Adoptee rights are everyone's rights, and they deserve to be protected.”
― DaShanne Stokes

“One participant described her frustration when she joined the Asian American Association in high school: 'I totally did not fit in...It kind of made me mad because I looked like them, so I felt like I identified with them, but once I got in, I learned I really don't at all.' Caught between the expectations of two groups, [transracial adoptees] often felt rejected by White people due to physical differences and by people of their birth ethnicity due to lack of language and cultural knowledge.”
― Beverly Daniel Tatum, Why Are All The Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?

“If the system were designed to protect adoptees, why do so many have to fight for their rights?”
― DaShanne Stokes

“It's illegal to deny people their records due to race or gender. Adoptees deserve the same rights and protections.”
― DaShanne Stokes

“Blood can help make family, but family often transcends blood.”
― DaShanne Stokes

“The fact that [Jin] didn't know her mother was simply that, another fact. Her mother leaving her was like the breath that singers take at the beginning of a song. Just a thing that happened before her real life began.”
― Natasha Anastasia Tarpley, The Harlem Charade

“A family who laughs together blesses each other.”
― Anne Weaver, Farm Fiasco

“We, as parents, are to bless our children so our children want to make the choices in this world that lead them to victorious living.”
― Anne Weaver

“In order to truly understand what it is to bless others, we, ourselves, need to first know what it is
to be blessed.”
― Anne Weaver

“Thorby had two choices. Be adopted quietly or make a fuss and be adopted anyhow”
― Robert A. Heinlein, Citizen of the Galaxy

“Being denied their original birth certificates isn't just a problem for adoptees. It's a social problem, requiring social change.”
― DaShanne Stokes

“From the beginning, Kendra had assumed that Catty was from some distant planet and that her extraordinary power was actually a form of teleportation used by her people. She had cautioned Catty not to tell anyone about her unusual skill. And Catty hadn't until she met Vanessa. She had known immediately that Vanessa was different, too, when she saw the silver moon amulet hanging around her neck. It was identical to the one Catty wore. Catty looked down at her amulet now and studied the face of the moon etched in the metal. She had been wearing the charm when Kendra found her. Now, sparkling in the fluorescent lights, it didn't look silver, but opalescent. She never took it off.
Kendra turned and glanced at her, her eyes asking if she was okay. Catty tried to smile back, but her lips curled in a sad imitation of one.
She wished she could find the courage to tell Kendra the truth. She hated keeping any secret from her. But the words never came. It was probably easier to believe in people from outer space than to accept what Catty really was, anyway. She sometimes thought Kendra would feel disappointed if she learned the truth. Kendra was always on the Internet trying to find out more about UFO sightings, Area 51, and Roswell. She seemed to enjoy the research.
Catty studied Kendra now. Her cheeks had taken on an angry red blush and her fingers frantically worked at the beads hanging around her neck. Would Kendra even believe her if she did tell her the truth... that she was a goddess, a Daughter of the Moon, on Earth to protect people from the Followers of an ancient evil called the Atrox.”
― Lynne Ewing, The Secret Scroll

“Your name, please?"
A young beauty with smooth, flowing dark hair and the darkest, widest eyes Amestris had ever seen stood before the king's eunuch. "Esther, my lord. Daughter of Abihail. Adopted by Mordecai, son of Jair." The girl's voice carried a cultured lilt. She must come from wealth or privilege. Whatever was she doing caught up in this... mess?
"Mordecai. He sits at the king's gate."
"Yes, my lord. He is my adoptive father, as both my parents are dead." Esther spoke matter-of-factly, as though the news was not recent.
Perhaps she was not so privileged after all. Just fortunate to be beautiful. A shame.”
― Jill Eileen Smith, Star of Persia:

“I adopted a policy of continuous change to discover the underlying causes of my disabling sickness.”
― Steven Magee

“He's a sweet boy, and actually very trainable, even if he is something of a natural disaster for the moment. He's the star of his puppy kindergarten class, and can sit, lie down, roll over, and high-five. But stay and heel are hard for him because he has so much playful puppy energy. He's also gaining about ten pounds a day, and I think maybe I should have named him Clifford, because I fear he's going to be bigger than my house by the end of the month."
"Well, at least Volnay likes him."
"Whatever else is wrong with him, Wayne was right about one thing. Volnay seems to be happier and perkier. She's helping train him, which I think is the only reason he hasn't eaten the entire neighborhood by now, and she has absolutely adopted him. Which is hilarious, because she is so alpha, and he is already bigger than she is. When he's full size, it is going to be pretty funny!”
― Stacey Ballis, Out to Lunch

“I've been waiting a long time for this. Hi ... I'm your Aunt Cassie.”
― Craig Harris, Memoirs of an Adoptee: One person's DNA discoveries, reflections and insights

“When Diana finally felt ready, they went back to the shelter in Dennis and found a medium-sized mutt, a cheerful fellow with bushy brown fur and eyes like bright black buttons. He seemed to be the result of the union between a corgi and some kind of terrier, and, like Willa, he'd been abandoned, tied up underneath a bridge, starving, with his fur full of mats and burrs and every kind of bug. Diana and Michael brought him home. They brushed the remaining dirt and twigs and burrs out of his coat, and fed him kibble soaked in chicken broth, and tossed a tennis ball for him to fetch. Eventually, his favorite thing became sitting in the prow of a kayak with his back paws on the base of the boat and his front paws on its top, gazing out across the water as Diana paddled.”
― Jennifer Weiner, That Summer

“I was adopted into stupidity.”
― Anthony T. Hincks

“Donkey had spoken to and petted dozens of dogs she'd seen jogging along the road or poking around for food at the edge of the Waters; some of them were traveling dogs, males chasing the scent of females in heat, while others had mysterious agendas they did not share. The cats she met were usually more elusive, hiding out and hunting until Molly saw the signs of their presence and trapped them and took them home and saved their lives all by herself. But dogs were valued in a town that knew them as man's best friend, and usually the loose dogs who appeared on Lovers Road were reunited with their owners or else were taken to the makeshift shelter Smiley Smith's mother had set up, where they were quickly adopted.”
― Bonnie Jo Campbell, The Waters

“Tom Argent had once loved fairy tales. When he was very young, he had loved to read about princes, and kings, and queens, and fairies, and goblins, and magic. He even liked to pretend that he was the son of a fairy queen, or a pirate king, who had been adopted by humans, and one day would claim his kingdom.
His parents had grown concerned at this. They had never hidden the fact that Tom was adopted, and they knew that all children liked to pretend. But Tom's imagination was especially vivid. He loved his parents very much, but they were afraid that this daydreaming might lead him to reject them one day. And so, they had both gone out of their way to discourage his love of fairy tales.
Whenever they saw him with his books, they would tell him: 'Stories aren't real. Magic is just an illusion. Fairies don't exist, Tom. Only trust what you can see.'
Then, on his seventh birthday, they had given Tom a camera, and the books of fairy tales had vanished swiftly and silently overnight, to be replaced by magazines devoted to different types of lens, in which the young Tom Argent had found another kind of magic. But looking at these images of the mysterious girl, he felt as if he had returned to the world of those long-ago storybooks, and it felt both exciting and wonderful, and deeply, darkly dangerous.”
― Joanne Harris, The Moonlight Market