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Hi, my name is Alaina, and I am 19 years old. My Chinese name is 包凯 (Bāo kǎi). I was adopted from the Fuling District in central Chongqing, China at 13 months old, and I now split my time between Davis and Sacramento, California.

Growing up as a Chinese adoptee has been a journey of navigating between two worlds. In a predominantly white community, I often felt like I didn’t quite fit in. Despite the unwavering support and love from my friends and family, I struggled with the feeling of being caught between two cultures — too American to fully connect with my Asian heritage and too Asian to feel completely at ease within American culture. This internal conflict made it challenging to understand my sense of identity and belonging.

My family, though supportive, had no Chinese background, and I wasn’t exposed to much of my heritage growing up. This lack of cultural connection often left me feeling disconnected from my roots. During middle and high school, I distanced myself from my Chinese heritage in an effort to fit in with my peers, which only deepened my sense of isolation.

It wasn’t until I started college that I began to embrace and reconnect with my cultural background. Sharing my journey as an adoptee and rediscovering my heritage has been a meaningful and empowering experience. I am currently a Biology student at the University of California, Davis. My passion for science and discovery drives me, and I am excited about the future opportunities in my field. Outside of academics, I’ve spent over a decade swimming — something I’ve loved doing for as long as I can remember. I also enjoy repairing bikes, which is a fun way to blend my interest in mechanics with a bit of creativity.
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#adopted#adopt#adopts#adoptee#adoptees#adoption#adoptions#adoptionstories#adoptionstory#adoptionjourney#adoptioncommunity#transracialadoption#transracialadoptee#internationaladoption#china#adoptedchild#chinaadoption#shareyourstory#adopteevoices#adopteestories#adopteemovement#adopteesspeak#chongqing#china

The past year has been a turbulent one for the Asian adopted community. We connected with fellow adoptees when China ended international adoptions, educated the wider community about Korean adoption history, and continued raising awareness about DNA testing and the Asian American experience. Through all of this, I’ve had the utmost privilege of hosting this page to raise awareness and amplify our collective voices as adoptees.

Over the past year, it’s been a joy to be a part of uniting and advocating for the adopted community. To everyone who have been supportive along the way: thank you for the opportunity to share my story as an adoptee and for the privilege of amplifying and advocating for adoptees’ voices the past four and a half years. While complex, it was an honor and one of the highlights of my year to share responses from adoption agencies in September and seek answers for us all regarding the end to Chinese international adoption. When I started this community in 2020, I never imagined we’d be where we are. As we progress into the new year, more adoptees’ spotlights and adoption content will be forthcoming. Cheers to 2024!

With love,
Téa Tamburo, Girls Adoption Connect founder

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#2025#newyear#happynewyear#newyear2025#20242#2025goals#adoptee#adoptees#adoption#adoptions#adopt#adopts#adoptionadvocacy#transracialadoption#transracialadoptee#internationaladoption#adoptionstory#adoptionstories#adopteestories#adoptionjourney#adoptedchild#adoptioncommunity#adoptionawareness#adopteevoices#adopteemovement

It’s almost 2025! In the past year, Girls Adoption Connect has shared 13 adoptees’ spotlights, 12 informative posts about identity and reached over 2,000 members in the adoptee community. This year, Current Culture Connections was created and features over 40 Mandarin and Korean pieces. With the news of China ending international adoption, Girls Adoption Connect published exclusive Q&As from three agencies/non-profits who work on Chinese adoption.

Given that 32 pieces have been published in the span of 50 weeks, Girls Adoption Connect will be resurfacing some of the year’s highlights on Instagram stories and the website. Starting tomorrow, and running through Dec. 31, tune in to revisit some of the highlights from the year!

Some of the pieces that will be resurfacing:
- Breaking the ‘Bamboo Ceiling’
- Adoptee spotlight: Laura, 林浪 @lauralang_lin
- Adoptee spotlight: Madeline Chu @wxnnzhxnn

Want to be featured in next year’s Year in Review? Visit the link in bio to share your story!

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#2024#2024year#2025#newyear#happynewyear#adoption#adoptee#adoptions#adoptees#adopt#adopts#transracialadoption#transracialadoptee#internationaladoption#china#korea#chinaadoption#adoptionstory#adoptionstories#adopteestories#adoptionjourney#adopteevoices#adoptioncommunity#adoptedchild#adoptionawareness#adopteemovement#shareyourstory#newyears#happynewyears#happynewyear2025

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In June 2005, I was adopted from the Gansu province, in China, at a year old. My name changed from Jin Qiao Mei to Sonoma and my home became Colorado.

I have always known I was adopted and I always knew I was Chinese. How could I not? I grew up going to adoption camps and heritage camps, with family friends and my siblings(who were also adopted). Despite knowing I’m Chinese, I have rarely felt that way, in fact, I felt rejected from the culture altogether, I felt different in every way. And honestly, that’s the last thing I wanted to feel.

When I tried to embrace the culture I lost I ended up feeling more like a stranger to myself, different from the people around me. When I tried to learn Mandarin in my first year of high school, I was told, by my teacher (who was Asian), that I should already know the language and that because I didn’t know the language I was different.

When I visited China, my sister’s tanned skin was criticized, and my skin was darker, at the time, so I can only imagine what they thought. Yet again the difference between who I am and who people believed I should be was prominent. I was too Chinese for some and too white for others. I was different from both the “typical Chinese girl” and the “typical white girl.” I’ve been trying to find my identity in this strange middle ground between my genetic heritage and the one I primarily grew up with. Trying to find who I am within the differences that surround me.
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#adopted#adopt#adopts#adoptee#adoptees#adoption#adoptions#adoptionstories#adoptionstory#adoptionjourney#adoptioncommunity#transracialadoption#transracialadoptee#internationaladoption#china#adoptedchild#chinaadoption#gansu#shareyourstory#adopteevoices#adopteestories#adopteemovement#adopteesspeak

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Hi, I’m Sophie, I am from Guilin, Guangxi China and I was adopted in 2006, when I was two years old. This was sometime after the Chinese special needs adoption program started. As part of a military family, I moved a lot growing up and have lived on the east coast and in the midwest in the United States, and I was originally in Illinois. My Chinese name (now legally my middle name) is 杨景萧 Yáng Jǐng Xiāo — Yáng being my given surname, Jǐng meaning scenery or view, and Xiāo referring to the Chinese bamboo flute. My orphanage gave me this name “in hopes that my future would be as beautiful as the music played on the xiao flute.” Even after I was adopted, I still insisted on being called my nickname, XiāoXiāo.

I do not know much about my life before my adoption but I have the faintest memories of my time in China before moving to the US. I am very thankful for my mom who has always been very open about my adoption and has told me all she knows. I have many siblings, most of which are also adopted from China! I honestly couldn’t imagine not having them in my life because we are all super close and I love having siblings who share a similar story to me. One of my sisters is actually from the same orphanage as me, but if we are blood-related, we do not know. My mom has always made an effort to celebrate Chinese holidays to help us learn more about our culture, like the Lunar New Year and Mid-Autumn Festival.
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#adopt#adoptee#adoptees#adopts#adoption#adoptions#transracialadoption#transracialadoptee#internationaladoption#adoptionstory#adoptionstories#adoptionstory#adoptionjourney#adoptioncommunity#china#adoptedchild#chinaadoption#guangxi#adoptionawareness#adoptions

I watched the clock change to midnight. It’s now Nov. 29, and my 20th birthday is officially over. Now, it’s the 20th anniversary of my Finding Day — the day I was found outside the gates of the Yiyang Social Welfare Institute.

I know that as I get older and my Finding Day becomes longer ago, the chance of connecting with my biological family declines. When searching for biological families, the most direct search methods are completing DNA testing and hiring private investigators. DNA testing sites like 23&Me, Ancestry DNA, and GedMatch mitigate the barriers caused by the possibility of families relocating, passing away, or giving up searching for their babies. However, time is a crucial factor in the success of a private investigator or in-person search.

Regardless of whether I want to connect with my biological family, each year it would become more and more difficult should I wish to search seriously. This, coupled with the fact that my orphanage no longer functions as it once did and that China’s international adoption program has since closed, serves as a poignant reminder of how much could have changed for my biological family in the two decades between my finding day and now.

One-Day-Old Me doesn’t remember my finding day, and, at times, reflecting on my finding and adoption feels more like a story I’ve been told rather than a part of my own lived experience. Yet, I can’t help but wonder about the hours between my birth and my arrival at the orphanage and what my birth family was like on the day I was there.

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#adoption#adoptions#adopt#adopts#adoptee#adoptees#transracialadoption#transracialadoptee#internationaladoption#adoptionstory#adopteestories#adopteevoices#adoptionjourney#adoptionday#adopteemovement#dna#dnatest#dnatesting#birthfamily#birthparents#adoptioncommunity#china#chinaadoption

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Jan 5

Adoptee spotlight: Alaina

Chongqing, China --> Davis & Sacramento, California Hi, my name is Alaina, and I am 19 years old. My Chinese name is 包凯 (Bāo kǎi). I was...

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Adoptee spotlight: Karah Post; 2024 year in review

Jiangjin, China --> Golden, Colorado Hi! My name is Karah! I was born in Jiangjin, China (right outside of Chongqing) and adopted when I...

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OneSky for all children’s responses to China ending international adoption; 2024 year in review

Response obtained from an email interview between Girls Adoption Connect and leadership from OneSky for all children . Responses have...

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