Link: A full house loaded with love

Before I start talking about this article, I want to make a couple of things clear.

1. I like articles like this.
2. I like to read about adoption stories that have happy endings and I like reading about happy families.
3. My comments are entirely my own opinion and are not necessarily the opinion of any other Korean Adoptee – they are the sometimes rambling thoughts of this Korean Adoptee only.

Now, I’ve told you that I like articles like this and now I’m going to vent a little about why I don’t like articles like this. To be fair, all of my frustration is not caused by this article…I’m just taking it out on this article because it’s handy.

It always startles me that an article can be just about a family who has adopted children from Korea (or any other country for that matter). Why is it news worthy? I understand if one of the children has just won a huge scholarship to Yale or one of the parents has discovered the cure for the common cold and “oh yeah, they also adopted four children from Korea,” but for some reason that fact alone makes it news worthy. It’s almost as if they are surprised that this non-traditional family could exist.

Yes, I know that this is not what they are trying to convey, but how many times have you seen an article about parents with biological children that is just telling everyone how much love there is in the household? When you see articles about the “traditional” family it’s generally because one of the family members has done something extraordinary.

I’ve rarely heard the parents of an adoptee complain about this type of article, but I’ve heard plenty of Korean adoptees complain about it. Perhaps this is another example of when two sides look at the same thing and come up with two totally different conclusions. Sometimes, I think that these articles try to hard to show the perfect family and they forget that families are not made of perfect people – they are made of real people.

I understand that these articles are often designed to help raise awareness about adoption. There message though is generally one of “happy ever after” and I think that it doesn’t spread the true issues of adoption. There are hard times in adoption. There are good times in adoption. Perhaps it would be beneficial if some of these “happily ever after” stories shared some of the trials and tribulations that it took to get to the “happily ever after” point.

If you would like to comment, but not on this site, please e-mail me at adoptkoreablog@adoptionmail.com.