Adoption
"My mum called me and I heard a strange, nervous excitement in her voice. 'I’m not sure how to say this,' she said. 'Your dad has been keeping something from you.'"
"The longer we waited, the more anxious I became. If we didn’t tell her soon, I feared it could do lasting damage to our family."
"As I was taken from my birth mother’s arms and placed at a nearby train station, I became a statistic ― another baby uprooted by the country’s one-child policy."
There are some key differences between the experiences of adopted and donor-conceived kids, but one thing remains the same: They should know about their origins.
Some adoptive, surrogate and queer parents are able to nurse their babies by inducing lactation.
As Freddy McConnell, a solo seahorse father, says: "Love makes a family, not who's in it."
"It takes a lot more than having a big heart and a spare bedroom."
It's never been easier to track down birth relatives on social media. But few are prepared for what happens next.
Fearful their marriage rights could be next to fall, queer parents are taking action to secure legal custody of their children.
“I have to think about what they’re going to experience leaving the home."