Transracial adoption
My son’s adoption is a transracial adoption. This means he is a different race than my husband and I. We are Caucasian. Cameron is biracial: African American and Caucasian.
When we began the adoption process, we had no idea what we wanted. We attended an informational session with an adoption agency. They had different “plans” for adoption. One plan was for international. One was for Caucasian and Hispanic. One was for African American. They went in great depth about the difficulty they had finding families for African American children. As a result, the fees were slighlty lower and the wait times were significantly shorter. We left there feeling like we finally had a reason for why we were unable to get pregnant. We had a purpose! We were supposed to adopt African American children.
We did not come to this decision lightly. We thought and talked about it. We looked at our neighborhood and community. We spoke with family and friends. And we decided this was our path. Adoption already makes a family ‘different.’ Transracial adoption makes the family stick out like a sore thumb. It is noticable to others when a child is a different race than the parents. (Although our son looks Caucasian and remarkably like my husband.) We were prepared for the questions and the stares. We knew we could and would handle it.
When most people think of transracial adoption, they think of Caucasian parents and African American children. This is not always the case. Most interntioanal adoptions are transracial. Both China and Guatemala are huge international adoption destinations. If the adoptive parents are Caucasian, the adoption would be a transracial adoption.
Even when the child does not look ‘different’ than the parents, it is still a transracial adoption and should be celebrated as such. My son is African American and we are proud of that. We will honor and celebrate that part of him, even if he does not look like he is African Amercian.
So, I have now explained our domestic, open, transracial adoption. I will hit more terms as they come along. If anyone has questions or suggestions, please feel free to send them to me!!
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