MEETING MY ADOPTION GROUP

Recently, my family and I went to Toronto for my cousin’s wedding. As well as attend the wedding, we went driving throughout Ontario to see family and friends who we haven’t seen since we lived there.

The moment I knew that we would be going to Ontario, I began planning for a reunion with my adoption group. The definition of adoption group in my own words is: a group of individuals who were adopted around the same time, from the same agency and trip. When my Mom began her adoption process, she registered with Ma Petite Famille, which is based in Quebec. Therefore, many girls in the same adoption group now live in Quebec and speak French, but there are a couple who live in Ontario. When we were younger and newly adopted, the families stayed in touch and met every year for a reunion. But once we began our new lives and things got more hectic, people moved and emails got lost, we weren’t able to reunite for 16 years… Until this year! I was able to contact some of the girls from my adoption group over facebook by ago using an old email list the parents made when they first met. Their responses were enthusiastic and they were just as excited as I was to meet them! We made a plan to meet in Ottawa for a couple days, where one of the girls’ (Izze’s) family would host the reunion so then the girls from Quebec would be able to drive down as well as the girls from Ontario… We would all meet halfway! … Well of course, except me, who flew over 4000 kilometers, but you know.

One of the girls in my adoption group from Toronto is Julia and she is one of my closest friends, so Theo and I stayed overnight at her house then took the Greyhound to Ottawa the next day. Oh yeah, Theo decided to come too! More Chinese sisters for him to get to know! So we took the Greyhound, where we unexpectedly met our friend Nikki who we grew up with before we moved to BC, and who is also adopted from China. We had previously met up with her to check out the CN Tower and she was our tour guide in Toronto, I really enjoyed reconnecting with her and seeing how her family was doing. When we arrived in Ottawa, Izze and her family were there with hugs and multiple remarks on how much I’ve grown. Even though I had changed a lot since they last saw me, I still heard a lot about how I still seemed to look the same as when I was a baby. “Wow, you’ve grown!”’s and “You look exactly as you did when you were a baby!”’s. We went to their house and got settled in and spent time talking about what was new in our lives. The next day, we all went to the train station to pick up the other two girls who were arriving from Quebec, Annie* and Laurianne. So here’s a funny story: the only person who could actually speak French out of the adoptees was Izze, who is bilingual, as well as her parents, and her younger adopted sister, Jazz. Theo and I speak a bit of French because of French class throughout high school (but let’s be honest, my high school French class didn’t teach me that much). Julia on the other hand speaks no French whatsoever. Soooooo, Izze was our translator. Despite the slight language barrier for the majority of both parties, it was really fun to use both languages to communicate. I practiced my French and they practiced their English. We had a couple days of exploring the city, going to the beach, smiling over old reunion photos, explaining jokes, laughing over how people have asked if we’re Mexican, and overall, just making a ton of amazing memories.

In the end, I couldn’t have asked for a better group of people to spend my weekend with, especially to share such a life-changing moment such as when we were adopted. Izze’s family were so grateful and accommodating to all of us and my Mom even got to meet all the girls when she stayed for one night in between reconnecting with old friends. Hopefully all the girls had a great time with each other because I know I definitely did! We are planning to reunite again next year. Not only did I realize that I loved all these kind, intelligent, strong young women who shared a similar story with me through adoption, but I also realized that I loved Ottawa because of how bilingual it is. I ordered a hamburger in English, then Annie ordered a hotdog in French to the same woman who seamlessly transitioned from English to French. Like how cool is that?!!?

One night, the whole group went to the Parliament Buildings for The Northern Lights Show where massive lights are cascaded onto the Parliament Buildings depicting Canadian history in French and English. It was a half an hour show that left me in awe AND at the very end, the national anthem was played. Everyone stood up and sang. The Parliament Hill was littered with people and everyone stood and sang. It made me so incredibly happy and blessed to live in this amazing country. I am so proud to have had the opportunity for a better life in Canada and to be a Canadian. I am happy to have had my beautiful friends who have different lives, but share the same beginning, standing beside me as we sang. Merci beaucoup pour les souvenirs et j’taime. À bientôt.

I also got the chance to see Leslie, the woman who went with my Mom to China to get me. It was so nice seeing her and being able to discuss seeing my adoption group because she knew the girls just as well as my Mom. She was almost as excited as I was!

*Name has been changed for privacy reasons.