InterCountry Adoptee Voices (ICAV)

Voices of those impacted the most in Adoption

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by

lynellelong
in

The ICAV website provides alot of information for a variety of audiences – fellow intercountry and transracial adoptees, adoptive/prospective parents and professionals. One of our main goals, is to provide a platform so can you hear from those impacted the most, the adoptee. I say “impacted the most” because we are the one party out of them all (biological parents, adoptive parents, lawyers, social workers, government workers) who isn’t usually an adult at the time of the relinquishment and adoption decisions. We are impacted by the very fact that we are children with no mature voice for ourselves or understanding of what is happening.

Here we provide our voices at an age where we speak for ourselves. We share our journeys honestly in the hopes it will help others better understand how complex it is to search for our identity and find our place in this world.

At the ICAV website, in the Individual Stories section, we provide a wonderful collection of personal experiences. It may not be the same as our parents, but it is our unique perspective.

Today, I want to bring attention to our newest contribution. It is a beautifully written piece by a Vietnamese adoptee, Paul Bonnell, raised as an American growing up in Malaysia, Philippines and the USA.

Here is Paul’s artistically expressed piece in words and pictures named Re-Imagining (the) Work in/of Literature.

Paul Bonnell.jpg
Paul Bonnell

Comments

5 responses to “Voices of those impacted the most in Adoption”

  1. Dee

    While I agree adoptees have suffered greatly in adoption there was rarely a young mom that had a choice. When the pregnant woman contacts a crisis pregnancy center she is told if she truly loves her baby she will relinquish. Many women fall there, however several of us fought. We were met with coercion threats and or torture. In a poundpuplegacy.org survey of 1000 moms 977 asked to keep and were denied. Also cps whistle blowers state about 10% of takings were nessessary. We are biologically made to die for our children. We are the walking dead in deep grief.

    Reply
    1. lynellelong
      lynellelong

      Absolutely acknowledge and agree the rights of biological parents have been denied and minimised too and that often, there wasn’t any real choice. You too have been impacted greatly and this wasn’t about who had it worst, merely to point out that we are the only ones who were actually children under age without any voice of our own.

      Reply
    2. lynellelong
      lynellelong

      Also, I should change the title to reflect better what I meant .. Voices of those least represented at Time of Adoption.

      Reply
  2. bonnersbonn
    bonnersbonn

    Yes. I appreciate what you are saying about adoptee voices, Lynelle. And I appreciate what you are saying about birth mother voices, Dee. Part of the adoptee burden I carry is in my birth mother’s untold story. Something in that “silence,” which is a sadness I grapple with—of history and erasure, etc. Different and layered complications. Thank you for reading and commenting.

    Reply
  3. Jenny pickles

    I’m appalled at the way the federal government takes no responsibility for its decisions and completely disregards a broad range of human rights issues. The apologies for past practices that have been issued are only lip service. Remain strong Lynelle and others affected by this latest cruel decision. You have worked so hard and deserve so much better.

    Reply

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