The adoption process can be trying . Last week, we posted Bible passages about adoption. This week, we’ve gathered adoption quotes from famous people who have been effected by adoption and real people just like you, as well as from poems or publications that talk about adoption. Read on and be inspired!
“You are a child of the universe,
no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.”
– Max Ehrmann, Desiderata
“Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you, yet they belong not to you.
You may give them your love but not your thoughts.
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.
You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite, and He bends you with His might that His arrows may go swift and far.
Let your bending in the archer’s hand be for gladness;
For even as he loves the arrow that flies, so He loves also the bow that is stable.”
– Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet
LEGACY OF AN ADOPTED CHILD
Once there were two women who never knew each other
One you do not remember, the other you call Mother
Two different lives shaped to make you one
One became your guiding star, the other became your sun
The first one gave you life, and the second taught you to live it
The first gave you a need for love, the second was there to give it
One gave you a nationality, the other gave you a name
One gave you a talent, the other gave you aim
One gave you emotions, the other calmed your fears
One saw your first sweet smile, the other dried you tears
One made an adoption plan, that was all that she could do
The other prayed for a child, and God led her straight to you.
Now, which of these two women, Are you the product of?
Both, my darling, Both, Just two different types of love.
– Unknown
“Not of my flesh, nor of my bone, but still miraculously my own. Never forget for a single minute, you didn’t grow in my heart, but in it.” – Unknown
“Time and experience have taught me a priceless lesson: Any child you take for your own becomes your own if you give of yourself to that child. I have born two children and had seven others by adoption, and they are all my children, equally beloved and precious.” – Dale Evans, adoptive mother
“It has been said that adoption is more like a marriage than a birth: two (or more) individuals, each with their own unique mix of needs, patterns and genetic history, coming together with love, hope, commitment for a joint future. You become a family not because you share the same genes, but because you share love for each other.” – Joan McNamara
“We look at adoption as a very sacred exchange. It was not done lightly on either side. I would dedicate my life to this child.” – Jamie Lee Curtis, adoptive mother
“He who can reach a child’s heart can reach the worlds heart.” – Rudyard Kipling
“Somehow destiny comes into play. These children end up with you and you end up with them. It’s something quite magical.” – Nicole Kidman, adoptive mother
“To be ignorant of what happened before you were born is to be ever a child.” – Cicero
“Both the courage and trust of those who decide to place their babies for adoption and the enthusiasm of those who adopt them are overwhelmingly vindicated by the tens of thousands of successful adoptions that take place in this country every year.” – The New Yorker in an editorial
“To give them what I never had heals me. Some days I look at them and almost start to cry. I think, How can I love them more than I did the day before? But it keeps growing.” – Rosie O’Donnell, adoptive mother
“Nothing that you have not given away will ever truly be yours.” – C.S. Lewis
“Children, after all, are not just adults-in-the-making. They are people whose current needs and rights and experiences must be taken seriously.” – Alfie Kohn
“The central struggle of parenthood is to let our hopes for our children outweigh our fears.” – Ellen Goodman
“Your children need your presence more than your presents.” – Jesse Jackson, adopted child
“It’s not only children who grow. Parents do too. As much as we watch to see what our children do with their lives, they are watching us to see what we do with ours. I can’t tell my children to reach for the sun. All I can do is reach for it, myself.” – Joyce Maynard
“Having a child means a piece of your heart is walking around in the world.” -Unknown
“There are two lasting bequests we can give our children. One is roots. The other is wings.” – Hodding Carter, Jr.
“It’s not what you leave to your children, it’s what you leave in your children.” – Unknown
“A hundred years from now it will not matter what my bank account was, the sort of house I lived in, or the kind of car I drove…but the world may be different because I was important in the life of a child.” – Forest E. Witcraft
“All that we love deeply becomes a part of us.” – Helen Keller
“He is mine in a way that he will never be hers, yet he is hers in a way that he will never be mine, and so together, we are motherhood.” – Desha Wood
“The most important thing in life is to learn how to give out love, and to let it come in.” – Morrie Schwartz
“There is…nothing to suggest that mothering cannot be shared by several people.” – H. R. Schaffer
“While we try to teach our children all about life, our children teach us what life is all about.” – Angela Schindt
“Having been adopted, I really have a strong sense- a necessity almost- for stability, a foundation where my family is concerned. [Success] would be meaningless without anyone to share it with.” – Faith Hill, adopted child
“I have a lot of respect for my birth mother… I know she must have had a lot of love for me to want to give what she felt was a better chance.” – Faith Hill, adopted child
“I am a living testament you can be adopted and successful.” – Daunte Culpepper, adopted child
“We must work tirelessly to make sure that every boy and girl in America who is up for adoption has a family waiting to reach him or her. This is a season of miracles, and perhaps there is no greater miracle than finding a loving home for a child who needs one.” – President Bill Clinton, adopted child
“I am convinced, completely convinced, that there was nothing random about [the adoption], she is the daughter I should have.” – Meg Ryan, adoptive parent
There are plenty of collections of other adoption quotes out there if you look! Here are some good ones that we found: Karen’s Adoption Links and AdoptionOpen.com.
