November. It is everyone’s favorite month because it is the start of the holiday season. Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas and New Year’s all happen either during or after November. Yes, I love the holidays and love the winter but as November closes, I like to remember why November is special to me. It is for a different reason. November happens to be National Adoption Month.
For those of you who do not know, I was adopted from Zhang Jiang, China. I was born in China and my birth mother was unable to care for me or keep me so she left me on the hospital’s steps. In China, when a baby is left in such a public place it means that your birth parents wanted you to be found. I was lucky enough to be found on those steps and taken into an adoption agency. As luck would have it, 8 months later my mom and dad chose to adopt me. I am lucky to be a part of a family who loves me. In addition to my parents, I have two amazing sisters who were also adopted. As you can see from the photos, my siblings and I do not look alike. My middle sister was adopted from China but we are not blood relatives, and my oldest sister was adopted from California. You can now see why this month is so important to my family.
Adoption is something that I am open to talking about. I love sharing my story with others. I think being adopted is something that makes me unique. It’s a great fun fact about myself and it’s a good statement when playing “Two Truths and a Lie.” Being adopted is part of my identity, but I don’t want people to look at me as just someone who was adopted. Nevertheless, I am proud to be adopted.
Today over 110,000 children are in foster care waiting to be welcomed into families that love them, and I cannot imagine what my life would be like as one of those children still waiting. Every month I donate to this great cause called The Center for Adoption Support and Education (CASE). This organization helped me to understand what it means to be adopted. I urge anyone who reads this article to look more into adoption and if you know someone who was adopted, wish them a Happy National Adoption Month!