National Adoption Month

November 2023

November has been designated National Adoption Month. I only learned this during the last few years and I’m an adult adoptee. I often wonder how it is that I only recently learned of National Adoption Month. The only place I have seen this announced is on social media sites. So, I’m here to help continue and facilitate the discussion while educating others about what it means to be an adoptee and how this translates.

For adoptees, these layers are complex and deep. They can include difficulty trusting, difficulty making genuine connections with others, poor self esteem, over sharing or under sharing and not having an understanding about their identity. I did not share my identity with others as an adoptee until my later adult years nor did I truly understand what that meant to me. I am fortunate in that I have taken the time to really begin to address this aspect of my life that I have kept hidden for many years. My lived experiences also contributed to the reason that I decided to pursue a career as a psychotherapist for 20 years.

Today, I offer other adoptees the opportunity to tell their stories as they develop a sense of self identity and begin to develop a sense of trust.   

It is vital that non-adoptees have some basic understanding about the realities of how being adopted shapes adoptees lives forever. 

I welcome the opportunity to conversi with other adoptees and their adoptive family members to help continue these important discussions.

In peace.

Abby Jacobson, Adoptee Counselor