Gladney Blog

With over 130 years of creating bright futures through adoption, you can imagine that Gladney's Post Adoption Department gets asked the same questions many times.

As you are exploring adoption as an option for your family, we are sure that you have many questions. Once a month we ask Mike & Astra a question about their adoption experience.

The Gladney Center for Adoption is very saddened and troubled by the separation of children from parents at our nation’s borders.  Research demonstrates children who are suddenly and without cause separated from their parents experience significant trauma with long-lasting negative impact on growth, emotional and mental health. To learn more about this issue please click here to read the American Association  of Pediatrics’ statement. Gladney is a child centered organization and we advocate for children around the world.

Every child deserves a loving and caring family. Every child. Everywhere.

This year, my thoughts of fatherhood are intertwined with the concept of sonship. What does it mean to be a son (or daughter)? Being a father is about the relationship. The same is true for being a son. Just as my father’s relationship with me defines him as a father, my relationship with him is what makes me his son.

We are starting a new blog series featuring questions that we are asking families in our Gladney China families Facebook group. (Hang on Taiwan families! We have something fun planned for your kiddos this summer too!)

The crew on my birthday

As I was putting my son to bed one night recently he asked me something to the effect, “Daddy why did you adopt me?”  If you have an adoption story you have likely heard or will hear this question many times.  I have answered this question before but this time I gave it a different thought.  See we had also just come off our third adoption and I kind of sensed the question is really more about why did you do this or need to do this?  

So I told my son as honestly as I could that we did not need to adopt him or his sisters to his surprise. As I explained, because when you need something it is more of an act of instinct, or survival so the satisfaction in the act is limited. No, when I thought about his question, I smiled and told him, “Buddy, I wanted you!” I chased after you with all the love of my heart for you and your sisters. All the long nights of paperwork, and worry.  All the driving around and chasing the next authentication or deadline, was not something I needed to do but I wanted to do. 

I wanted and chased after all my children as one who loves with reckless abandonment until that day when I had my children in my arms and peace settled into the deepest part of my soul.   That moment happened a year ago last Father’s day, after a long trip to bring home my precious daughter, we just happened to have Father’s day weekend as our first weekend home. As we sat around the table having lunch, an overwhelming feeling hit me and turned to my wife and said, “This is right, this is what we were meant to be as a family”.   

My little ones, my loves, you completed me that Father’s Day and every Father’s Day for all time.

- Written by a 3x Gladney dad, Dwight Richmond

My name is Tessa, and I’m a Gladney Sibling. If I had to describe myself in three words, I would choose determined, creative, and independent.