Featured Submission

Last year, I followed Carrie Goldman’s monthlong series about adoption avidly. Carrie’s daughter is Star Wars Katie who is, I’m not lying, one of the superheros in my life. It’s because I was bullied as a kid. I cheer for what that little girl and her family have done not just to stand up to bullies but to bring real change for other kids in similar situations. I follow Portrait of an Adoption closely and cheer for every post Carrie puts out there.

But still, I’m not adopted. Neither are my kids, so it took a little soul searching for me to realize why I cared as much about the adoption posts as I do about the bully posts. And when I got it, it was the middle of the night, and I was having a particularly stressful week, and I absolutely couldn’t sleep. So I wrote it all out, then sat on it for about a week, edited it, and sent it to Carrie. She said she would try to include it sometime in the next year. At that point, she was considering featuring one story every month.

I didn’t hear anything else, so I figured it was not meant to be. But then last month, she wrote me and told me she had chosen to feature my piece in this year’s 30 Adoption Portraits in 30 Days series. I was so stunned. I had hoped she could use it in some way, but the story I’m telling belongs to others, to my niece and my grandfather. To have it included with the stories of those who carry adoption experiences of their very own is humbling. And it’s an honor. Thank you, Carrie, from the bottom of my heart.

You know, if you’re a regular reader, that I don’t put much about my sister out there. It’s the one story I want to tell most that I spend the most energy not telling, largely to protect my niece. But, if you would like to know a little more about my family’s dynamics, please take a few minutes to read the post over on Chicago Now. You’ll note that it also features another of my personal heroes, my Mom.

http://www.chicagonow.com/portrait-of-an-adoption/2012/11/why-do-i-have-to-be-adopted/

Oh – and here’s a gratuitously adorable picture of Kay from this summer.

About jesterqueen:
Jessie Powell is the Jester Queen. She likes to tell you about her dog, her kids, her fiction, and her blog, but not necessarily in that order.

Comments

Featured Submission — 6 Comments

  1. Adoption is in my family too, but unusually even for the 1950s, it was an open subject, my father knew he and his twin were adopted as well as his adopted ‘brother’. He valued having a ‘real’ mother not a ‘biological’ one but there always so many questions that could never be asked. Adoption is a good legal protection but it doesn’t always sense of the reality, maybe the law should change to recognise other bonds within the arrangement, such as grandparents. But then family has got so complicated, diverse and splintered in these modern days, I think we just have to appreciate whatever and whoever we have. We can choose family these days. And how we call it. 🙂
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