Natural child: any child who is not artificial.
Real parent: any parent who is not imaginary.
Your own child: any child who is not someone else’s child.
Adopted child: a natural child, with a real parent, who is all my own!
To celebrate Adoption/Orphan Awareness Month, I thought I'd share a few resources that celebrate positive adoption language. I'm sure this is redundant for many of you who are in the adoption community, but I thought these were helpful to bring a sweet light on the beauty of building our families in this way, and to dispell some of the old ways of thinking that this is somehow a "plan B" at best. Disclaimer: I really think that we all can go overboard on the whole politically correct thinking/language issue and that most of the time, people do not mean the insensitive, hurtful things they unwittingly say, whether it's about adoption, ethnicity, social or economic status, or whatever. I think it's important to have some degree of thick skin, a ton of grace & meaningful education in all things. Life's too short to split hairs, but words can truly wound and reveal the heart of one's attitude. I'm more concerned about our heart toward adopted children rather than the actual words we use, but this is good food for thought.
"First introduced by Minneapolis social worker Marietta Spencer more than 20 years ago, positive adoption language is crafted to give the maximum respect, dignity, responsibility, and objectivity about the decisions made by both birthparents and adoptive parents in discussing the family planning decisions they have made for children who have been adopted. By using positive adoption language, we help abolish the old stereotype that adoption is second best – a dirty little secret that everyone knows about.
If you stop and really think about what you’re saying, positive adoption language is just common sense. For example, take terms such as real parent, real mother, real father, real family – these terms imply that an adopted child is not a real part of the family. By using phrases like this, you are invalidating both the child being a “real” part of the family and the “realness” of the family itself.
Through the use of positive adoption language, we educate others about adoption. By consistently speaking (and writing) in positive adoption language, someday this language will become commonplace – and the old hurtful terms will only serve to expose those who choose to be mean and small-minded. When we use positive adoption language, we say that adoption, like birth, is just another way to build a family. Both are important, but one is not necessarily better than the other." [Excerpted from "International Adoption Guidebook," Mary M. Strickert © 2004]
Here are a couple more links to read or share:
Happy Adoption/Orphan Awareness Month!! We're thankful to have a new reason to celebrate this year. :)
I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. John 14:18
No comments:
Post a Comment