The Wild Family
This family openly approached inter-racial adoption, and we hope their story answers some of the questions you may be asking yourself. Meet the Wild family.
WHAT DO YOU WANT FAMILIES WHO ARE CONSIDERING ADOPTING INTERRACIALLY TO KNOW?
People do ask more questions and you will get looked at more then when you have a child that looks like you, but it opens up more doors to have conversations about our adoption story and we have opportunities to have positive race conversations. It’s important to celebrate who your child is and it’s not just about removing your child from their culture. An example of this is that we make it a point to take our child to an African American barber shop so that he experiences the black culture and is around the black community.
WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNED FROM YOUR ADOPTION AND PARENTING JOURNEY?
Parenting is tough regardless of race, but there are different challenges interracial families face. It’s important to talk about adoption and use positive adoption language both in and out of our home.
IS IT POSSIBLE TO FEEL CONNECTED TO A CHILD OF A DIFFERENT RACE?
Absolutely.
HOW MUCH DOES APPEARANCE MATTER?
To us it doesn’t matter. It does make it very apparent that we have built our family through adoption, but this gives us more opportunities to talk about our adoption story.
IN WHAT WAYS DO YOU ATTEMPT TO PROVIDE EXPERIENCES TIED TO YOUR CHILDREN’S CULTURAL ROOTS?
See above example of barbershop. We also purposely purchase books, toys and music connected to the black culture.
WHAT WILL BLACK WOMEN THINK OF ME WHEN THEY SEE ME WITH A BLACK CHILD?
All interactions have been very positive. I’ve even had women thank me for adopting a black child.
HOW DO WE TELL OUR FAMILY AND FRIENDS WE ARE ADOPTING INTERRACIALLY?
We began our adoption process and when we were matched we shared with them the race of the birth mother (who happened to be African American).
DID YOU HAVE ANY FEARS ABOUT TELLING YOUR FAMILY ABOUT YOUR INTERRACIAL ADOPTION?
Both of our families have interracial families built through adoption, so this wasn’t an issue.
WHAT HAS BEEN THE GREATEST JOY AND CHALLENGE OF ADOPTING INTERRACIALLY?
The biggest joy has been sharing our adoption story. A challenge we face is that many people assume we adopted our child from Africa. Another challenge is that people assume the birth mother is an addict or 16, where we respect the birth mother for the decision she made and we don’t want people to think less of her.
