Personal stories

Gotcha Day is one of the names many adoptive parents use to mark the day their child was adopted. While is it intended as a celebration, adoptee Mila Konomos shares a different perspective, along with her personal adoption story. Mila is a transracial, transnational Korean American adoptee. She has been in reunion with her Korean family for over a decade. 

I’d like to address the practice of so-called “Gotcha Day.” An adoptive parent wrote to ask me for my opinion about it as an adult adoptee. 

People with FASD struggle with lifelong behaviour and learning problems. In this article, one young adoptee shares her story of life with FASD. All names have been changed.

In this article, originally shared on the Lost Daughters website, Lynn Grubb shares some of the key lessons and outlooks on life she discovered as an adopted person.

Adoption has been an option for same-sex couples for years now, but stereotypes about who and what makes a family persist. In this article, a gay adoptive dad shares some thoughts on the unique joys and challenges of being part of a two-dad family.

Q&A: Shawn Duthie

Shawn lives in Revelstoke with his wife, Leah. He’s been a foster dad for over a decade, and his adopted kids range in age from 4 to 33.

Communities of friends and family love to celebrate with one another. We celebrate graduation. We celebrate marriage. We celebrate pregnancy. But how do we celebrate adoption, especially when the child is not a baby? Here’s how Heather Haynes did it.

Preparing to welcome a new child is one of the most intense, emotional, demanding times in any waiting parent’s adoption journey. It’s also when friends and family are likely to have the most questions! Keeping everyone in the loop can be overwhelming. One way to handle it is to write a letter. Here’s a heartfelt and inspirational example from a waiting (now adoptive!) parent, who shared her letter on Facebook.

AFABC’s education program has changed and grown a lot! In this article, our education team lead explains what we do now and how we do it.

Timberline Ranch Camp is the highlight of the year for dozens of adoptive families, many of whom have attended for years. With the eighth year of Timberline just around the corner, we thought it was time to celebrate camp and reflect on what makes it so valuable and special. This article is from the fall 2016 issue of Ni Hao, the newsletter of Families with Children from China BC (FCCBC). It does a fantastic job of capturing the experience of Timberline Ranch Camp!

Holidays can be tough for adoptive families. Here are our best tips for enjoying the season.

Keep things simple, and celebrate differently (or early, or late!) if you need to. The holidays may be full of warm memories for many, but they can also be triggering and a sad reminder of losses for our kids (and their parents!)
—Sarah, AFABC Team Lead/Community Engager and adoptive mom