Child Crisis Narrative

Throughout the years I feel that I’ve had a number of valuable experiences, my most significant experience is my volunteering experience at Children’s Hospital Colorado. I still remember feeling utterly terrified on my first day volunteering, pondering all the possible ways things could go wrong. I suddenly felt as though I have never experienced this before. I was on my own, responsible for myself and all of my actions.

Although it may hurt the adoptive parents to let the child know that he or she isn’t theirs biologically, a child should always know where they come from so that they are able to establish their own identity whether it be the identity of the biological or adoptive parents or even both. If the child knows at an early age that they are adopted, it is likely they will be able to deal with it better once they reach the adolescent age. In “Adoption History: Telling”, Ellen Herman gives the story of how adoption was never disclosed to the child, but not at the sake of the child. Telling has been a chronic dilemma in the history of adoption because it highlights the problem of making adoptive kinship real while also acknowledging its distinctiveness. During the twentieth century, adoption professional maintained a firm consensus that children placed in infancy should be told of their adopted status early in life, but adopted parents did not always agree, and anecdotal evidence suggests that many children were told in adolescence, on the eve of marriage, or even later in life. The reason adoptees were told had less to do with honesty than it did with emotional inoculation against stigma. Parents would be wise to tell children about their adoptions with kindness and love before they learned the truth from unfeeling relatives, nosy neighbors, or cruel

Transracial adoption is has been a source a controversy for decades. Opponents of transracial adoption worry that the adopted children will struggle with racial identity and that it promotes “cultural genocide”, while those on the opposite spectrum of transracial adoption seem to take a position of being “color-blind” coupled with the idea that “all you need is love.” Transracial adoption is

From early on in life I knew that I was adopted. Unfortunately, that was about all I knew. I knew when and where I was born and the approximate age of my biological mom, but the rest was left to question. I often found myself wondering, "Who was she?" "Who was he?" "Was it love?" "Where are they now?" "Did they end up together?" "Are they even alive?" "Who would I be had I stayed with them?" "Where did my characteristics come from?" Questions like this ran through my head almost daily. It wasn’t until my eighteenth birthday that I got any answers; it was then that I learned some life changing information about my origins.

One year later, a very tragic day happened. I have heard the talk about the word “adoption” and that “there’s too many dogs.” I ran towards Koda and hugged his paw. “What’s the matter?” asked Koda. “Dad, whats adoption?” I asked. “Adoption is a state of someone legally takes someone or something and brings it up as one’s own.” “What do you mean?” I asked. “It’s time for your brothers and sisters to be adopted,” said Koda, “but don’t worry, Kingsay has a home here and so do you.” Then, my owner came and picked up Koda and Koko and took them to the car. “Dad!!” I yelled. “Mom!!” yelled Kingsay. “Kido, don’t worry about me,” said Koda, “just be brave and take care of your brother.” “Kingsay, I will always love you,” said Koko, “take care of yourself

One hundred years ago, if a child was found unwanted or neglected, they were placed in an orphanage. Today, our society has created a foster care system taking children and putting them in better homes until reunited with biological parents or adopted. This system has become so elaborate that it’s not uncommon for the average person to know someone who was in foster care or who was adopted. For this reason, adoption and fostering are terms that have become very commonplace in our society today. However, consider the following four examples, unique each in their own right, and yet all profoundly changed by a simple openness to life.

After we talked for an hour or two, I had to leave so they could pick who they wanted to adopt. It felt like an eternity passed. I waited and waited to hear who they picked. When dinner rolled around, I was so nervous and scared that I wasn’t going to be picked. As I walked to the dinner hall, Shannon was throwing tissues and calling me a crybaby. When I walked into the room full of little girls I finally had

In today’s world adoption is becoming more and more popular and problems with rights are continually popping up. As problems arise, court cases arise and that makes a very hard struggle for the child. No matter the age of the child they know something is different and they have to live through the complications. “If they were abandoned, for whatever reason, their little bodies, hearts, and brains know it, even if they’re too young to articulate it. Even babies loving carried and then placed into the arms of their new parents shortly after birth know that something has changed—that the voices and bodies now surrounding them are different than those they have known for nine months” (Little, Joleigh). Adoption is a wonderful opportunity for abandoned

Have you ever sat back and looked at your life and wondered where you would be if it weren’t for the selfless act of another human being. My biological mother Marlene Georges is more than just a brave and courageous woman, she is my hero and I believe she saved my life. My mother spent the first five years of my life struggling to feed me, bathe me and clothe me. We encountered complete poverty and every day was a struggle to find food, water, and shelter. This heroic woman made the selfless decision to give me up for adoption in hopes that one day I would have the opportunity to live a better life.

Life here at the orphanage has become a routine, and requires almost no thought, which is good because sometimes my thoughts get all jumbled up inside. I wake up every day and go straight to the bathroom I share with the 14 other girls in my room. Although dirty and ancient, it still works. As I wash my face I stand on the stool in front of the sink, showing almost my complete small stature in the mirror. I am stocky for my age, my nose is more flat than round, and although I am a happy teen, my mouth is permanently downturned. I stare at my eyes, while most kids here have a hollow, disinterested look in their eyes, mine sparkle because I know there is more for me in this life and it is coming. My eyes are a deep blue with spots on the iris which is how the doctors first discovered I had Down Syndrome when I was born. From then on my parents only looked at me with disgust or just as a pile of possible medical bills. That’s why I haven’t been adopted, the medical bills. I know that’s why because I overheard Sister Mary and Sister Angelica whisperings about it once. I hopped down from the stool feeling slightly disoriented due to my severe eye problems. I followed my fellow sisters down the hall to breakfast. I sat in my assigned seat and ate my oatmeal that the sisters served to us daily. The oatmeal tasted like chopped up grainy wood, but why complain? I

What surprised me the most but also concerned me about the HBO documentary, Children in Crisis, were the factual statements that would show up on the plain black screen. To name a few, only 10% of parents seek help for their obese children and only 5 states make physical education mandatory in school systems. The way I see it is these facts are surprising but also concerning because it appears we are not doing enough to change this epidemic. As I learned in Nutrition 280 as well as the video clip eating healthy and exercise go hand and hand. In order to address these facts, I believe caregivers, cafeteria workers, school administrators, congress, physicians and so on should be looking out for the best interest of the child population. This

Above all they must know that they are not the only ones, in 2016 there were 56,642 children adopted in the United States alone. For some adoption is a taboo subject, not only parents who have adopted children should educate their children. All those lost stories should not remain a secret. All children should understand that adoption is not something anyone should have to be apologized to for. Listen to this story now, it might help you understand the mindset of these children who have lost their past.

When I was in the third grade I had a friend named Taylor; we were like sisters. We did everything together. Our mothers kept us together. But one day she told me they were moving. I didn’t believe her because she was always joking around. When I asked her mother about it, she told me that it was true. Me being a kid, I asked her if I could come with them. She laughed and said, ¨I don’t think your mother would let you leave.¨ She told me that they were moving to New York. I knew it was far, but I did not know how far exactly. So I said okay and went back to play. Taylor told me that she was going to be coming down every summer to be with her grandparents. So I wasn’t as sad. I went home and told my mom that I had lost my sister. She just looked at me. She had already talked to Taylor’s mom and agreed that I could go to New York for winter break. That made me happy. I went to school a few weeks later thinking I was going to see my sister, but I didn’t. She was getting ready to leave. My mother took me over

I ounce read a story of a man who was adopted as a child. He told of how his smart-cheeky mother handled a very sensitive situation. As a small child he came home one day from school crying. “The other kids are teasing me, they told me I belong in the lost-and-found.” His adopting mother brushed away his tears and gave his this advice: “Go tell the other children that their parents had to take what they got, but I could hand-pick you from thousands of other children.” Sometimes it feels like it is

For years, I convinced myself that the story of my life began when I arrived in America at eleven months old. I tumbled through the clichéd white-picket-fence childhood, never realizing how impossible it was to completely discard the first year of my infancy. While I had always known about being adopted from China, I did not fully comprehend the weight of this detail until my late teenage years.