Five Child Adoptee Perspectives

0:00Welcome to this special episode of the Open Adoption Project. We're the Nelson Kids and we are your hosts. My co-name is Skittle King. And I am Blebby Boy. And I'm Big Sis. Today we're interviewing other kids who were adopted. Thanks for joining us.

0:32First we will hear from our friend Rocklin. Welcome to the podcast. We're excited to hear from you. How old are you Rocklin? Five. What is your favorite color? Purple. That's my favorite color too. What's your favorite movie? Ryan the Last Dragon. Oh, that's, I like that one too. What's your favorite book? You Are Special.

1:02We have that one too. Is there a place you want to travel? India. India? That sounds exciting. Can you tell me about your family? I have four people in my family. Not counting me. And five people in my family counting me. Can you share with us about your adoption? So, I was born and my birth mom didn't have a husband.

1:32So she decided to pick a family and she, she just picked the Crain family since Heavenly Father just wanted her to. What does open adoption mean to you? If they're open to adoption, then they know their birth family. If they're close to adoption, then they don't know their birth family. Do you have an open adoption or a closed adoption? I have an open adoption.

2:02And for you, what does that mean? That I know my birth family. Do you get to see them much? Yes. When do you get to see them? Whenever my mom and dad invite them over. How do you communicate with your birth parents? I feel like one time my birth mom gave me notes. How do you feel about being adopted? I feel good. Do you know that your birth parents love you? Mm-hmm.

2:32I know my birth parents love me too. What do you wish that other people knew about adoption? That if they knew about adoption, then people could give them children Next up, we'll hear from Kyson. if they couldn't give any children from their wives' tummies. Welcome to the podcast, friend. Tell us about some of your favorite things. How do you feel about adoption? Hi, everyone. I love adoption. This is Kyson. So do I, Rockwin. Welcome to the podcast, friend. Thanks for being on our episode. How are you?

3:03I'm good. How are you feeling? Good. How are you feeling? Good. How are you feeling? Good. I'm good. Good. things? Well my favorite color is green because well that's green or orange really light orange or really dark green kind of the opposites with different colors and my favorite movie is Harry Potter my favorite books Harry Potter

3:33again. Where is someplace cool you would like to travel to? Um Hawaii. Can you tell us a little bit about your family? I have one brother and three sisters. Um my baby sister is Melody my medium sister is Lydia and my oldest but younger than me sister is Natalie and my brothers Jay and he and Natalie are twins and I have

4:08my mom and dad. Can you share a little bit with us about your adoption story? My mom and dad were just normal people that were just love to travel and seeing family and friends and every day since they were married they wanted us they were hoping for a son or sorry just any kind of a child and once my mom had a

4:40dream and it was um a baby boy but she realized in that dream that she didn't the baby um wasn't going to be wasn't born from her so then after that dream she um started trying to adopt and she finally found someone named Heather just

5:13contacted them on the internet and then my mom and dad went to the hospital and got me. I know that you have an open adoption with your birth mother what does that mean to you? A whole lot to me because I love her very much almost as much as my own mom but um not as much. How do you feel about being adopted Kyson? Um good because it's unique and I'm the only adopted person in my family.

5:48For you what's the best part about being adopted? Again the same thing I just said the just being part of just being like unique. What do you wish other people knew about adoption? Well lots of people know about adoption but it just kind of feels like you're just unique in your family and and it's okay if people

6:23make fun of you even if you're adopted just feel like know that your family loves you. I really love what you said about being unique and special. I hope our friends figure out what adoption is really about maybe it's up to us to help them. Thank you so much Kyson for being on this episode today. Next we're going to talk to Zach. Tell us a little bit about yourself. Um Zach and

7:00I'm four years old. What's your favorite color? Red. What is your favorite TV show? Dora. Do you have a favorite movie? Toy Story 2. I like that one too. Can you tell me about your adoption? I grew up in Mona's family. I went to my family. Do you get to see our birth family? I have a sister named Jada. Jada comes to visit us.

7:33She's 19 years old. She comes to visit me four times. How did your birth mother pick your family? She watched a video about my family and then she picked them. Are you happy to join your family? I'm happy. I'm thankful to Mona and glad I see Jada. Anything else that you want to tell us Zach? I love my family. I love Mona my

8:03birth mom and Jada my birth sister and Jason Summerly my sister and brother. Thanks buddy for being on our podcast. Next we're speaking to a friend that has a cool code name. What's your code name friend? Luke Skywalker. How old are you Luke Skywalker? Nine. Do you have a

8:38favorite color? Red, orange, green, and blue and white. What's your favorite movie? Luka. Do you have a favorite book? Star Wars and Ninjago. Where is a place that you want to travel to? Mexico and Hawaii. Can you tell me a little bit about your family? My dad is Devin and he likes taking things apart and fixing and then

9:13rebuilding them. My mom Katie she likes to fly in planes and go back to where she lived Arizona. My younger sister who's five Rocklin she loves princesses and she really likes fancy things and my two-year-old younger brother Lannan he likes to play with cars and he also likes to destroy the whole house. That

9:51sounds like my baby brother. Can you share with us your adoption story? My adoption story was that my birth family wasn't married yet and they didn't know if they were going to get married so that's why they put me into adoption for they wouldn't have to worry about that and then they did get married because they said it was because of me being adopted. My birth parents got married

10:23too after I was born. What does open adoption mean to you? Open adoption means to me that your birth family loves you and they adopt you and another thing that open adoption means to me is that I know their names and that sometimes and

10:58for open adoption you can get birth brothers that aren't adopted and mine are Penny and Declan and that's what open adoption means to me mostly. How do you feel about being adopted? Happy but also kind of sad because I want to see my birth family a lot but sometimes we don't have time to even if we're like

11:28driving by their house we still we sometimes don't even have time to. What's the best part about being adopted? I have two families I can hang out with if I get bored of hanging out with one I can go to the other. Pretty much never get bored with my birth family because they always are nice to me. What do you wish other people knew about adoption? I wish that they knew that whoever doesn't know what it means they

12:02know what it means and that they know that you're still loved and that it's also fun because you don't have to be bored with just with one family you can go see your birth family unless you're not adopted you your birth family is your normal family. Thanks Luke Skywalker for sharing your story. Our last guest on

12:34today's episode is Jace. How old are you Jace? I'm 12 years old. What's your favorite book Jace? My favorite book is actually a series it's called Fablehaven I really like it. Do you have a favorite movie? Not really I particularly like Marvel movies, superhero movies I like those. Is there some cool place you would like to travel to? That's very hard I kind of just want to travel to new like

13:05places that have like different cultures from the places I've already been maybe like I really want to go to Egypt. Can you tell us about your family? So I have five family members my mom my dad my sister my baby brother my sister's name is Summer and my baby brother's name is Zach. All three of us are adopted all the kids. Can you share with us about your adoption story? What I know is that my birth my birth mom's name is Ashley but at the time when she was pregnant she

13:37wasn't married and so she had a feeling she prayed and stuff and she had a feeling that um she had a feeling that I needed a mom that I needed a mom and dad so I so she went to online and she found my parents right now and then I also have a baby brother named Jax or a birth brother named Jax. She also met with my parents right after she was born with me and she kept me in the hospital for a

14:10while. Do you get to see her very much? I see I do see her a lot like on special occasions. I sometimes I go and see like my birth brother's baseball games and soccer games because he's like six years old so. It sounds like you get to see your birth family a lot do you think that helps you? Yeah I feel like if I didn't know where my adoption like if I don't know my mom birth mom I would just I would feel sadder I don't know what I'd feel I would just I would wonder

14:41about. What do you feel about being adopted? This is hard I guess I like it because I have two families that care about me and love me and I have more siblings and stuff like that and I get to go see her often so that's pretty cool. For you what's the best part about being adopted? Well I get more birthday presents from both families and Christmas presents so that's cool. What

15:12do you wish people knew about adoption? Well for some people think that some people are like question which one is your actual mom because you also have you have a birth mom and the mom you live with. I but the one of course it's the one I live with I just wish people knew more about that. People kind of think it's weird to be adopted like or some people don't believe you when you tell them so I just wish people like didn't think it was that weird and just knew

15:43more about it. It's normal for us but it's not normal for them. Awesome Jace thanks for sharing with us today. Thank you for listening to this episode of the open adoption project. We want to say thank you to all the kids that share their stories. Goodbye.

Transcripts are generated automatically and may contain errors.