FAMILY
BLESSINGS ARE FOUND WHEN ADOPTING For Black families, adoption could be the answer to finding the perfect family.
I
t’s commonly known that we men don’t usually open up about our feelings as much a women do. We experience love and loss, triumph and turmoil, yet our significant others, children, and parents feel we don’t talk to them about important aspects of our lives. Something I share openly is that I am adopted — born by two parents, raised by two others. You wouldn’t know I’m an adopt-
38 OCTOBER 2021 / CODE M
Written by DAMON DAVIS Host of the Who Am I Really? podcast (www.whoamireallypodcast.com)Author of Who Am I Really – An Adoptee Memoir Instagram: @WAIReally
ed person to look at my family — my mother, Veronica, is a lighter-skinned African American woman, my dad, Willie, was a darker-skinned man of the same race, and my skin tone is between theirs, so I look like I could be their son. I love my parents deeply and I wouldn’t change a thing about my life. We are family thanks to our lived experience, but we share no genetic relation. When I was thirty-six years old, my wife, Michele, gave birth to our son, Seth, introducing me to the first blood relative I had ever known — making him extra special to me. He was the first known branch on a genetic family tree I hadn’t thought much about. His birth drove home the fact that
