Adopt a child from China

Beth Hall, Director of PACT - An Adoption Alliance, shares advice for parents of an internationally adopted child on how to help your child understand and celebrate his or her different culture
How To Embrace Your Internationally Adopted Child's Culture
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Adopt a child from China

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One of the things that I have noticed over the years with adopters who adopt from other countries as opposed to domestically is sometimes they want to keep the racial, cultural heritage of their child at a distance. Of course, the country is far away. And that can be dangerous because of course it matters where we are born and every child is entitled to celebrate that. If they were born in China, if they were born in Guatemala, or they were born in the States, they deserve to celebrate that. But they also need to understand that they are now living here and their communities need to be found here. We don´t want to exotify. We don´t want to turn children into your people are far, far away as if that some place that they don´t have a community here. So we want to be sure and the danger can be sometimes international adopters will distance themselves from other adopters who have the same race children but their children were born here instead of in that country wherever that might be. And I think that is something you never want to take away from kids. We want to give them community. We want to give them connection with us or with larger communities. So that is important.

Beth Hall, Director of PACT - An Adoption Alliance, shares advice for parents of an internationally adopted child on how to help your child understand and celebrate his or her different culture

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Beth Hall

Director, Pact - An Adoption Alliance

Beth Hall is an adoption educator who co-founded Pact, An Adoption Alliance, which is a multicultural adoption organization dedicated to addressing essential issues affecting adopted children of color. Pact offers lifelong support and placement services for birth and adoptive families with adopted kids of color. A national speaker, she is also the author of numerous articles and a book, Inside Transracial Adoption, which is filled with personal stories, practical suggestions, and theory, and delivers the message that race matters; racism is alive; and families built transracially can develop strong and binding ties. In 2010 she received the Outstanding Practitioner in Adoption Award, from the Adoption Initiative at St. John's University. She currently serves as a contributing author and advisory board member for “Adoption Clubhouse,” a project promoting positive identity in transracially adopted children for the Evan B. Donaldson Institute for Adoption and as an Advisory Board Member for the On Your Feet Foundation, dedicated to supporting birth mothers of adopted children.Commitment to family is a way of life for Beth. She is the white adoptive mom of two young adults: Sofia, a Latina, and James, an African American. Beth grew up a member of an adoptive family—her sister, Barbara, was adopted. She lives in Oakland, California, with her husband and sometimes her adult children, when they are home.

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Transcription: 
One of the things that I have noticed over the years with adopters who adopt from other countries as opposed to domestically is sometimes they want to keep the racial, cultural heritage of their child at a distance. Of course, the country is far away. And that can be dangerous because of course it matters where we are born and every child is entitled to celebrate that. If they were born in China, if they were born in Guatemala, or they were born in the States, they deserve to celebrate that. But they also need to understand that they are now living here and their communities need to be found here. We don´t want to exotify. We don´t want to turn children into your people are far, far away as if that some place that they don´t have a community here. So we want to be sure and the danger can be sometimes international adopters will distance themselves from other adopters who have the same race children but their children were born here instead of in that country wherever that might be. And I think that is something you never want to take away from kids. We want to give them community. We want to give them connection with us or with larger communities. So that is important.