For international adoptees and their families, birth country travel is NOT about travel.
It’s about identity building, understanding culture, and discovery.
This list of sources is not final, and we are constantly adding as we learn of more resources.
Academic Articles:
Tracing the Red Thread: Chinese-U.S. Transnational Adoption and the Legacies of "Home" - Anthropologica
Exploring Birth Countries: The Mental Health Implications of Heritage Travel for Children/Adolescents Adopted Internationally - Adoption Quarterly
Adoptee Resources and Community Groups
IamAdoptee - Reflections on the Adoptee Journey: IAMAdoptee is a place for an
intercountry adopted person to find a way to connect with others through reading or
viewing works of adopted people. Knowing that adoption is not an event, we approach
being adopted at various intersections of life through our topical campaigns and by
taking deep dives into particular areas of life specific to an international adopted person such as “finding and connecting with the adoptee community” or “seeking counsel and support.”
Also-Known-As - The mission of Also-Known-As is to build a community that empowers the voices of adult international adoptees, while providing resources and space to acknowledge the loss of birth country, culture, language, and biological family.
Hyphen - A news and culture magazine, media outlet, and community partner that
illuminates Asian America through investigative features on the cultural and political
trends shaping the fastest-growing population in the U.S. Includes in-depth profiles of
change-makers in the community and a window into the world of artists and writers who are re-envisioning and rewriting what it means to be Asian American.
Therapy Redeemed - A Korean Adoptee Therapist, Cam Lee Small offers group and individual services for adoptees. Cam has many free resources on his website.
Blog - Read more of our BLOG - click here.
Birth Country Connections and Their Impact - The Heart of the Journey
Messages of Birth Country Travel
Books
Finding Fernanda: Two Mothers, One Child, and a Cross-Border Search for Truth by Erin Siegal. Author Erin Siegal McIntyre reveals the heart wrenching story of how Mildred Alvarado, a young single mother, embarked on a dangerous mission to reunite with her two kidnapped daughters-- and, simultaneously, how an American housewife, Elizabeth Emanuel, who'd been offered the girls accidentally became a reformer dedicated to an ethical adoption system.
If the World Were a Village by David J. Smith and Shelagh Armstrong. By exploring the lives of the 100 villagers, children will discover that life in other nations is often very different from their own.If the World Were a Village is part of CitizenKid: A collection of books that inform children about the world and inspire them to be better global citizens.
Mamalita: An Adoption Memoir by Jessica O'Dwyer. Mamalita is as much a story about the bond between a mother and child as it is about the lengths adoptive parents go to in their quest to bring their children home. At turns harrowing, heartbreaking, and inspiring, this is a classic story of the triumph of a mother's love over almost insurmountable odds.
Material World: A Global Family Portrait by Peter Menzel and Charles C. Mann. This internationally acclaimed bestseller puts a human face on the issues of population, environment, social justice, and consumption as it illuminates the crucial question facing our species today: Can all six billion of us have all the things we want?
The Declassified Adoptee Essays of an Adoption Activist by Amanda H.L. Transue-Woolston. Essays by an adult adoptee, social worker, author, speaker, and advocate. By addressing adoption through brief essays, the book provides an avenue through
which readers can begin to metabolize some of the tougher concepts in adoption.
Other Articles
I Found My Birth Mother and It Didn't Rock My Life and That's Ok
A Painful Truth: Guatemalan Adoptees Learn they are Fraudently Given Away
Podcasts
All Relative: Defining Diego. Defining Diego is the story of one Guatemalan adoptee and his mother, a reporter who documented their journey from his earliest steps, as they try to understand how international adoption boomed and busted, and what it all means for families like theirs, with feet in two worlds.
Videos
Finding Family: A reporter shares her personal story of adoption and reunion