About Abi Expertise I can answer questions on the emotional side of being an adoptee and on searching for adopted persons & birth parents.
Experience I was adopted from birth myself, and have found my own birth parents (both in UK and Spain) having had very little information to go on. I have also had a lot of experience researching information for others.
Question What do most adoptee's feel when they're first told that they're being adopted, and when they meet their families? Also, what do the families feel like when they first meet the adoptee?
Answer Hi there,
these are very generalised questions which could entail writing you a book in response! Are you referring to when a child, who has been brought up by their natural parents, is then handed over to foster parents/adopters? Or are you referring to when an adopted child sets out to find their natural parents/have a reunion with them etc? If the latter, then:
From my experience, adoptees are likely to be upset to be told they are adopted if they are older children or adults - for this reason it is always best to tell them from the very start.
When they meet their natural relatives, the feelings can range from curiosity, to having very expectations, to being suspicious, to being very happy. Likewise the same feelings are felt by the natural parents.
