November is the month of my birthday, and it also happens to be the month designated for all sorts of adoption awareness campaigns. This year a number of us have “flipped the script” and have essentially owned all of the Twitter hashtags for adoption-related issues, such as #NAAM2017, #NAAM, #NAAM17, etc. Honestly, click on these hashtags associated with National Adoption Awareness Month and see what you get.
As part of my own celebration of “Adoptee Rights Awareness Month,” I’ve also created a few memes with fellow adoptee Shawna Hodgson, who with Kim Dimick runs a Texas-based adoptee-rights organization called Equality4Adoptees. But I wanted to do more, so I came up with an idea to accomplish two things: 1) celebrate my birthday; and 2) help other adoptees who may not be able to afford DNA test kits.
So, I am donating at least one AncestryDNA kit to an adoptee this month as my own birthday gift. It will go to a person whom I corresponded with briefly on Facebook and who said she literally cried when she heard that a program known as Kits of Kindness donated DNA test kits to those who need them. Turns out, though, Kits of Kindness currently does not have test kits to donate, though I expect they will again soon. So, provided I can find this person again (for some reason she disappeared from my threads), she’s going to get my own donated kit.
And here’s what I ask of you, whether an adoptee, adoptive parent, birthparent, stepparent, sibling, LDA, ICA, desendant—however you identify yourself during this month of awareness. Please consider donating a bit during November to help adoptees. Already, just in posting on Twitter, I’ve had two people match my own $69 donation for a kit as well as others pledging time to help interpret and use the results. But I’m not asking for people to do that much. Five bucks is enough if many of us donate. That’s it. I will then collect those donations, report back on everything collected, and throw out all the kudos to all of you for pitching in. Then, we’ll start the process of determining how best to distribute donated kits to adoptees who would like to do DNA testing but can’t quite afford the cost.
If you are still with me, it’s easy to donate. As of August 2019, Adoptees United runs the program, making all donations tax-deductible.
Thanks, and we’ll see all of us on the right side of awareness.
Gregory, I am very impressed with your initiative to offer free DNA testing to adoptees. We at 325KAMRA are already doing this for Korean KADS and HAPAS for free across the world and have assisted other adoptee groups with advice and startup information. You can learn more about us at 325KAMRA.ORG and feel free to reach out to us. BTW, I grew up on a small dairy farm in Minnesota- wow you are braving the cold weather! Hope to hear from you soon. We would love to assist you. I do testing in Europe and will go to Australia in the next year to offer to test. I have tested in 30 cities and 12 countries in Europe. We also have an office in Korea to actively test and search for birth families and of course, offer to test in the United States.
Thanks! And I still have a lot to learn, so I appreciate you giving me information about 325Kamra and what you and others are doing. Sounds impressive. Like, really impressive.