Adoptees Quotes

“We don't have adoption issues, we have an issue with adoption.”
― Janine Myung-Ja, Adoptionland: From Orphans to Activists

“What matters most is not 'what' you are, but 'who' you are.”
― DaShanne Stokes

“People think that LGBTs adopting children will hurt them, but it's not being in loving homes that hurts children most.”
― DaShanne Stokes

“Destiny is not always preordained. Life is about making choices. Our lives are the sum of all the choices we make, the bridges we cross, and the ones we burn. Our souls cast long shadows over many people, even after we are gone. Fate, luck, and providence are the consequence of our freedom of choice, not the determinants. When justice is served by following our principles, making good decisions brings us inner peace.”
― Judith Land, Adoption Detective: Memoir of an Adopted Child

“We are connected to other human beings on this earth– genetically, historically,' Winn says. 'It's like magnets, I may not know where the other end of the magnet is, but I'm being pulled to it. How can we answer anything about ourselves if we don't know what our roots are, if we don't know who are people are?”
― Libby Copeland, The Lost Family: How DNA Testing Is Uncovering Secrets, Reuniting Relatives, and Upending Who We Are

“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

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“Laws forbidding adoptees from accessing their original birth certificates are outdated and need to be changed today.”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

“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

“As a Korean, when meeting a Korean adoptee, I feel a negative charge. It feels like rubbing the wrong parts of two batteries together, a painful repelling that is supposed to be an attraction. Korean adoptees have told me time and time again that they feel abandoned and neglected. But what they do not know is that Koreans also feel a longing for them - the longing for the lost child, the lost sibling, like when people look at the Taegeuk and see the dividing line and ignore the fact that a circle binds them together. A big reason I married Danny was because I needed to show him that we all missed him. I needed to accept him with the open arms denied me so many times by Koreans.”
― Youngmi Mayer, I'm Laughing Because I'm Crying

“Discovering that I was adopted redefined my entire world, but it taught me that who you are doesn't change.”
― DaShanne Stokes

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

“Linda would say that she was so excited to have half-sisters that she didn't fully appreciate how her story posted a fundamental threat to their story.”
― Libby Copeland, The Lost Family: How DNA Testing Is Uncovering Secrets, Reuniting Relatives, and Upending Who We Are

“People thought they could get away with everything, she says– and indeed, they did until genetic genealogy came along. In Moore's view, DNA is an equalizer, a revelatory force with the power to right past wrongs.”
― Libby Copeland, The Lost Family: How DNA Testing Is Uncovering Secrets, Reuniting Relatives, and Upending Who We Are