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A mysterious tattoo on her forearm was all that linked Sara Jones, adopted as a child by white parents, to her South Korean origins. Searching for her birth family taught her that transracial adoption stories often frame new lives abroad as strokes of luck that call for endless gratitude, obscuring a far more complex reality. Through her experience of loss and discovery, Jones offers guidance on what adoptive parents can do to protect their children's unique cultural and personal narratives.
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First
Thank you so much for sharing your experience with us. I cannot imagine what you want through, but I hope that transracial adoptions these days are more sensitive to the children’s emotions and identity.
So no Koreans wanted to adopt her, and the alternative to being adopted by her White adoptive parents would have been to stay in an orphanage until 18, and then she would have been shown the door and would have been on her own? Is that the fault of her White adoptive parents? Should her White adoptive parents have either not adopted her or should they have tried to learn Korean and lived a Korean lifestyle (and what if they already had White kids)?
“I don’t want to be reminded that I am adopted I just want to be a normal kid”
Thank you so much for sharing this! I think about adoption issues frequently. While I always admire the courage and commitment of adoptive parents, I also feel heartbroken for the adopted kids. Even adoption within your race is not easy, not to mention transracial ones. Why do kids have to go through this in the first place? Of course it is better than not being adopted, but still traumatic.