adoptees
Welcomed into families
Adoptees are people who have been legally adopted, typically as children.
The term appears most often in discussions of adoption rights, identity, and the search for biological parents: Many adoptees struggle with questions about their origins.
While "adopted children" or "adopted people" work in most contexts, adoptees is the standard term in legal and advocacy settings.
A joining or relation
- attachmentConnection or fondness
- bondingForming close connections
- acceptanceConsent to receive
- inclusionBeing made part
integration · family ties · reunion · permanency · stability · welcome · embrace · chosen family
Inherited cultural legacy
- rootsUnderground nutrient absorbers
- ancestryFamily line of descent
- genealogyStudy of family descent
- geneticsScience of hereditary transmission
ethnicity · self-discovery · cultural identity · birthright · DNA testing · nature vs nurture · origin story · birth name
Protective care or control
- guardianshipLegal care of another
- consentVoluntary agreement given
- home studyLearning outside the classroom
- foster careSupervised substitute parenting
biological parents · placement · relinquishment · family law · birth certificate · sealed records · finalization · legal status
Being without something
- griefIntense sorrow from loss
- abandonmentAct of leaving permanently
- rejectionDenial of acceptance
- attachmentConnection or fondness
trauma · healing · resilience · relinquishment · separation · longing · curiosity · gratitude
Genetic mother and father
- birth motherParent who delivered child
- birth fatherMale who conceived child
- siblingsFellow offspring
- first familyEarliest settlers of area
reunion · kinship · half-siblings · family tree · blended family · found family · extended family · relatives
connection
A joining or relation
- attachmentConnection or fondness
- bondingForming close connections
- acceptanceConsent to receive
inclusion · integration · family ties · reunion · permanency · stability · welcome · embrace · chosen family · placement
heritage
Inherited cultural legacy
genetics · ethnicity · self-discovery · cultural identity · birthright · DNA testing · nature vs nurture · origin story · birth name · identity formation
custody
Protective care or control
- guardianshipLegal care of another
- consentVoluntary agreement given
- home studyLearning outside the classroom
foster care · biological parents · placement · relinquishment · family law · birth certificate · sealed records · finalization · legal status · parental rights
loss
Being without something
- griefIntense sorrow from loss
- abandonmentAct of leaving permanently
- rejectionDenial of acceptance
attachment · trauma · healing · resilience · relinquishment · separation · longing · curiosity · gratitude · complexity
birth parents
Genetic mother and father
- birth motherParent who delivered child
- birth fatherMale who conceived child
- siblingsFellow offspring
first family · reunion · kinship · half-siblings · family tree · blended family · found family · extended family · relatives · family history
- family termsparents, nuclear family, mothers, extended family, fathers
- ancestryancestors, kinship, ancestor, clan, ancestry
- marginalized groupsminorities, ethnic minorities, people of color, disabled, LGBTQ
adopteesnatural children
Children of unmarried parents
adopteesadopters
Those who take in
adoptive parents · birth parents · biological parents · birth mothers · birth fathers
adopteesadoptive parents
Legal non-birth guardians
adopters · adoptive families · adoptive mothers · adoptive fathers · foster parents
- early adopterFirst purchaser of innovations
- adopted childMinor placed with new parents
- adopted sonNon-biological male child legally claimed
- adopted brotherMale sibling by legal process
- adopted familyLegally joined household
- adopted children