Find My Family

ABC recently debuted a new show called "Find My Family", which centers around reunions between adoptees, birth parents, and birth families. Both hosts of the show are adopted. I watched the first episode this afternoon, which centered around Ashley's search for her biological brother, and Jamie's search for her biological mother. Both the biological brother and mother were open to meeting and re-connecting with the young women, and the reunions were joyful and inspiring. However, I do feel that the show glosses over the ups and downs of adoption, particularly for two reasons:

1) Ashley learned, upon reuniting with her brother (and a surprising guest, her younger biological sister) that until their teen years, her siblings were told that they had a sister who died at birth. They had no idea that she had been given up for adoption. Ashley remarked that she was not angry at her biological parents for giving her up because they were in the financial position to raise another baby at that time and she considers herself to be "high maintenance". The fact that her siblings grew up thinking that she had died was barely discussed. While I understand that the show was not created with the intention of being a therapeutic resource, I am slightly disappointed that there was no attempt (at least on-air) by the producers to provide such a resource to the participants.

2) Jamie, a woman of color, was adopted by an all-white family. The discussion of the trans-racial adoption is brief: Jamie says that there were never any issues of race within her family. However, I find it hard to believe that being raised by an all-white family in an all-white community was smooth-sailing, particularly since Jamie seemed so driven to meet her birth mother. Transracial adoption is a difficult situation for all parties involved -- there are many explanations that must be made, understandings that must be developed, and difficulty siutations to be navigated. It seems almost irresponsible to present it in such a blemish-free light.


What do you think of the show? Is it an accurate representation of the feelings of adoptees and biological families? Are there missing facets? Does the show provide a deep enough look at adoption, or do you think that it glosses over important issues regarding adoption? Reunion with the biological family is purported by many adoption specialists to be extremely cathartic in that it allows the adoptee to form a more coherent sense of themselves. Do you think that the show provides those means?