Reclaiming November as National Adoptee Awareness Month

When we celebrate and honor the complex people in a community rather than a one-sided portrayal of an extremely complex practice, it enables a more holistic appreciation and acknowledgement of the impacted people. The expectation of thankfulness with Thanksgiving coupled with the celebration of National Adoption Awareness Month during November demands gratitude and compliance from me while smothering all of this complexity, which forces an opposite reaction and a desperation for everything suffocated to be seen and heard. National Adoptee Awareness Month allows me to express gratitude in a way that National Adoption Awareness Month does not.

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Read My First Journal Article!

This autoethnography recounts experiences from my emerging adoptee identity situated in academic institutions. I use my story to connect with larger themes in adoption and propose a framework that expands upon existing theories of trauma. My hope in recognizing trauma, that is not necessarily historical, collective, or intergenerational by definition but is still present, is to better understand the adoptee experience, validate the existence of trauma, and to promote opportunities for lifelong healing.

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