Is there a parental identity to adoption

Pastor Jimmy Bartz discusses being an adoptive parent
Adoption Advice | Adoption and parental identity
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Is there a parental identity to adoption

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One of the things that people ask me, because I'm the father of an adopted child - my daughter was adopted at 10 months old - is how do you deal with identity, in the case of being in a relationship with a child who's not genetically yours, or wasn't born traditionally through your own family system? And I just go back to the basic practices of parenting. You know, sometimes people will ask me a question like, what do you think Jade's real dad is like? And I'm like, I'm Jade's real dad. I'm the one who was there changing the diapers. And I'm the one who's been there on the side of the soccer field. And I dropped her off at kindergarten the first day. I'm the one who has had to be the one to discipline her. And I'm the one who has had to engage her compassionately as she struggles. So I'm not sure that there really is a great big divide in adoptive parents and adoptive children. There are certainly differences and challenges. But I think really the culture at large views that difference with more curiosity than adoptive parents and adoptive children do.

Pastor Jimmy Bartz discusses being an adoptive parent

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Jimmy Bartz

Priest

Jimmy serves as rector of St. John’s Episcopal Church in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Prior to coming to Jackson, he was the founder and priest at Thad’s, an emergent Episcopal Church in the Santa Monica, California, in the Diocese of Los Angeles. He has also served as the Campus Missioner at the University of Texas in Austin, at All Saints’ in Austin, Texas, and All Saints’ Parish in Beverly Hills, California. He is a graduate the University of Texas at Austin and Virginia Theological Seminary. Presently, he serves as the Chair of the Board of the Episcopal Evangelism Society, and in years past has worked with Red Bull High Performance teaching athletes spiritual disciplines, with Naval Special Warfare working to create systems for character development within special operations teams, and was a speaker at TEDx, Venice Beach.
Married to Cindy and dad to Jas and Jade, the Bartz family loves to spend time outside mountaineering, skiing, fly-fishing, hunting and surfing.  Jimmy is currently writing a book on the spirituality of risk.

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Transcription: 
One of the things that people ask me, because I'm the father of an adopted child - my daughter was adopted at 10 months old - is how do you deal with identity, in the case of being in a relationship with a child who's not genetically yours, or wasn't born traditionally through your own family system? And I just go back to the basic practices of parenting. You know, sometimes people will ask me a question like, what do you think Jade's real dad is like? And I'm like, I'm Jade's real dad. I'm the one who was there changing the diapers. And I'm the one who's been there on the side of the soccer field. And I dropped her off at kindergarten the first day. I'm the one who has had to be the one to discipline her. And I'm the one who has had to engage her compassionately as she struggles. So I'm not sure that there really is a great big divide in adoptive parents and adoptive children. There are certainly differences and challenges. But I think really the culture at large views that difference with more curiosity than adoptive parents and adoptive children do.