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.