International Adoptee Congress Launched

First International Adoptee Organization of its Kind is Launched at Washington Conference

With its official launch confirmed by its first annual conference, the International Adoptee Congress (IAC) came into being in early November 2006 as the first organization of its kind -- a nationwide organization organized by, and populated by, and created for, adult international adoptees. International adoptees are adopted individuals who came to live in the United States from foreign countries.

Read the full press release here.

I am excited about this organization. Not because my daughters at the ages of two and four will join now, but because of what it means for their future. While the population of international adoptee is growing in the United States as well as around the world and the first large group of internationally adopted children came to the United States more than 20 years ago, there is still so much work to be done to meet the needs of these children and adults.

When the first internationally adopted children joined their families, a widely held belief was that with our love they will be fine in our community of predominately white families. They are American now and it is best that they leave all the ugliness of their beginning behind in a country on the other side of the world. And sadly, some families adopting children internationally today still hold these beliefs. I am learning from these children who are now adults that ignoring their birth country and first family is not fine.

What is important to me and what I am learning from these amazing young people (boy, that makes me sound old) is that we cannot ignore that our children are of another ethnicity, that they have a homeland that is not the United States of America, that they have a family on the other side of the world. My husband and I have made the commitment to parent and love our children, we have also made the commitment to teach them about their birth country and culture while teaching them about being a patriotic American. We honor and remember their birth family, but must be honest that we will likely never have the opportunity to meet them or know their name or the circumstances that led them to leave their child to be cared for by others. This is a considerable and humbling responsibility.

I applaud these dedicated individuals who were born in countries in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East and who have come together to form the IAC for their honesty, fortitude and commitment.