Abstract

When you are adopted, people endow you with a narrative of being saved. It is under these conditions that many of us (adoptees) have been/are suffering as a result of the silencing efforts following the attainment of a new family. Gratitude is expected. It is under this weight of assumption that I write about adoption. In light of the broad scope of kinship configurations via adoption, this essay will focus on biological separation and familial building through legal or formal processes. I write into and against the indebtedness I am pressured to voice towards being chosen (read: saved). Even though attitudes are slowly shifting there is still a commitment to diminishing the ruptures that took/take place in order to make adoption possible. This essay is an intervention.