Hello!
I wanted to take some time to update my community about my recent trip to Colombia.
This holiday season the Adoption Mosaic staff was able to relax and recharge while enjoying the holiday season before launching into the new year. Because this was the first time we’ve created an intentional pause in working, I took the opportunity to envelope myself into my own adoption experience. Four Portland based adoptees, my daughter and I all met in Colombia where we had fun in the sun and some of my closest friends met my biological mother for the first time.
This opportunity to bring my two worlds together was unique and reminded me that although I've done a ton of work in navigating these relationships and my feelings, there is still work to be done. In fact, there will probably never NOT be work to be done. During this trip, many beautiful moments ensued; some that made me feel warm, full, and fortunate to even be able to have this experience and some moments that felt challenging. As I brought my worlds together, I realized in a very clear and inescapable way, that there is an overwhelming gap in the resources and tools that are available to us as adoptees in navigating reunion and long term relationships with our first families versus the resources and tools available to my Colombian family. I am someone whose life is #drippingwithadoption, yet I struggled in my realization of these gaps in support and resources for the different people in the adoption constellation.
My personal experience as an adoptee in reunion has showed me that the institution of adoption was designed without consideration for the gaps in resources between adoptee and birth/first families and barriers to adoptees in pursuing meaningful relationships with our birth/first families such as loss of language, lack of cultural competency in our country of origin, and the painful impact of the loss of time on adoptees and birth/first families.
What’s good about this problem? I am re-energized in the work that we do at Adoption Mosaic because it is critical that we as adoptees have access to resources as we age, explore, live and try to thrive within a system that was not designed to support our experiences or bridge those resource gaps.
I look forward to the new year and our abilities to decrease these deficiencies and continue our deeper connections with each other and our adoption constellation.
