Sunday, September 18, 2011

New Hope

It's been over a month since I last posted. Things move fast in the adoption world and much has happened. An agency of our Australian Government has put out a survey on adoption, which accomodates everyone affected in whatever way. Even relatives of adoptees are being asked to complete the survey and hopefully many will respond, so that we will have a much more realistic view of what adoption means to us all. It will be an official viewpoint of our Federal Government.
Adoption is handled here on a State basis although our current Inquiry into forced adoption is a Federal initiative.I know that some of you are watching to see what the results will be and the report will be handed down on November 22nd. Still less than a third of the Submissions have been made by adoptees, but after the decades of silence for what we are now calling The Invisible Australians, it is a good result and an encouraging one. I know some of you have read some of those painful Submissions and thank you for your support and fellowship.
In recent times that support adoptees have shown each other has been inspiring, empowering and as Joy has said, 'exhilarating'. It now seems we have a world-wide community of adoptees, a community of understanding and acceptance across the hemispheres, across age groups and cultures and beginnings. How many are able to achieve something so rare and precious? We have been so lucky to live in times when we have the mighty www to assist us and make possible what has never been before. Many adoptee lives have been transformed and the potential is unlimited.
Our own Australian Adoptees Network has been formed; is still in it's infancy, but is providing the support that is needed one-one or group-one.We are gaining strength, finding our feet and beginning to move out into the wider world, challenging and no longer accepting what is said about us, our frozen position as eternal babies and invisible adult adoptees. Some of you may have seen the news report on Victoria's trade in babies, in which an adult adoptee was treated with disrespect and ignorance. Some have protested, complained and we are awaiting the results, as individuals, of our first time of standing up to be counted. We are few still, but have hopes others will join us in time as they find their way, their voices and their confidence. If we have learned anything, it is that out of pain and difficulty can come a new direction, new hope and a sense of doing something for ourselves that needs doing.