Every person has roots, even if these very roots have been deeply buried, ignored or severed over time. When we adopt a child from abroad we are (hopefully) giving her a family, unconditional love, an education, a safe home and a chance to reach her maximum potential as a human being, but we are nonetheless still cutting her off from her cultural roots.
How important are our roots? Very, even though many of us take them for granted, especially if we have never lived outside our country of birth. It is when you live abroad that you examine your roots as you start to compare your belief system, your mores, your culture, to the new culture you are now immersed and often struggling in.
When a child is adopted at birth, for many years he believes that he is actually “exactly” like his adoptive family in every way. But when he reaches the tween and teen years and begins the normal process of “the search for one's identity” he understands that his genetic roots are in a foreign country. This process can be emotionally challenging for an adopted child, even more so if his country of birth is a third world country thats once rich culture is now buried under poverty, crime and corruption. Even my five year old daughter adopted from Guatemala comprehends the difficulties of surviving and thriving in her country of birth. We visited Guatemala last summer where she saw the poverty there first hand and met orphans from a large orphanage. This morning on the way to school she asked me: “Mom, Guatemala is a really poor country isn’t it? “Yes,” I responded. “Well, I’m glad I live here,” she responded.