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You've been Adopted  -  You've been Abused but you were too young and too afraid of repercussions to report

Statistics tell us abuse in adoption is not a problem.  But we lived the problem.  Because there's no record, your abuse never existed - only the ones that kill or die seem to count.

Help us challenge the statistics to reflect our reality by registering

(either anonymously, under pseudonym, or real name)

  • Fill out an Abuse Case File once you have registered
  • Fill out our extensive Adoption Abuse Survey
  • Add your story to our collection of blogs, Read Our Stories
  • Accept our heart-felt gratitude

Join the adoptees below who bravely expose the truth to spare future children from this unnecessary and preventable fate.

 

Abuse Case File

morgan06109's picture
Annonymous
December 2 1962
Torrington, CT
3/01/1963
an upper middle class family you would never expect inflicted cruelty on children
Adopted Mother

I was told every day that I was a mental deficient just like my real mother.  That I was nothing and would never be anything.  I was told that I was the most ugly child they had ever seen.  I was beaten, strangled, whipped, publicly and privately humiliated.  I was locked in a room and not allowed to socialize.  I ran away at 16 and went to court to declare myself an emancipated youth.

Your Message
About Abuse: 

I have no idea why these people would adopt a baby.  Why oh why would they not have left me for someone who really would have loved me.   Records need to be OPENED, why do I have to suffer for other peoples choices?

About adoption: 

Adoption is EVIL.

(Abuse Case File)

scottglabs's picture
My Name is Scott
I was born in 1966
I was born in Portsmouth New Hampshire
I was fostered until age 3---Adopted at 3
I was raised in a Beautiful NH town
My Abusers were my Adopted Father, Foster Brother, Family's Natural Son, Adopted Stepfather

What kinds of Abuse was I subjected to? Better question would be is there any you were not subjected to!

I was Sexually Molested by my Adopted Father from the age of 3 until 6 years old!

I was Sexually Molested by an Older Foster Brother,

I was Sexually molested by my Amoms Natural Son for many years after that....All in All, That is from the age of 3 until around 13 years old!

Mentally and physically Abused by AStepfather from 13 until about 17, He would always tell me what

"A piece of shit I was, That I was no Good, That he would kill me, that he hated me, Anything to belittle me!"

Where was my Amom during this wickedness? Either she would be working or somewhere Else...Though I did tell her of the physiacl abuse, She lived in Denial as she was Abused herself by the man she adopted me with!

But the worst were those weekly physical beatings! Every Single weekend that He could get drunkl enough at....Punches in the face, Bloody Lips, Wind knocked out of me, Bloody noses, Knocked down to the ground and dragged about the house....Once He could knock me down to the Ground, He than took great Effort to kick me anywhere he could...Slammed my head down on the Bathroom Sink---Blood everywhere! Luckily that was witnessed by someone and stopped!

He was a Very Violent weekend Alcoholic!

His name is Jack F, My Afamily is Gone now but this Scumbag still lives...How can that be?!

Your Message
About adoption: 

Adoption is NOT always Peaches and Cream!

Abuse Case file

mmcdubose's picture
Michelle
04/01/1972
Independence, Louisiana
1985-- after 10 years in foster care with adoptive family
Bogalusa, Louisiana
Delores M., adoptive mother; Brian R., foster brother and fellow foster child

Slapping, Punching, Violent Shaking, Hair-pulling, Ear-pulling, Kicking, Throwing, Hitting with various objects (stick, belt, wooden spoon, hot curling iron, fly-swatter) from age 3 to age 19

Threatened with knife, threaten to be beaten until "the blood comes out," among other verbal threats from age 3 to age 17

Humiliation, degradation, physical and verbal abuse in public; referred to as having "emotional problems," told that I was just like my birth mother while speaking ill of her.  age 3 to age 34

Sexual abuse by older foster child #1, attempted rape by older foster child #2 (when I was around age 10).  Blamed for it when I talked about it at 19.

Controlled social interactions, friends had to be kids from our church or a similar church, not allowed to join activities such as Girls Scounts.  Forced to play piano in church; not allowed to play classical music, only religious music.  Television was strictly censored to programs adopters liked, as was music.

 

 

 

Your Message
About Abuse: 

The stories of abuse while in foster care are increasing.  What people don't usually talk about is the abuse after the child is adopted.  Adoption is viewed as a means of rescuing a child from unfortunate circumstances, and often this is true.  There are many children whose lives were made better by their new parents' love and affection.  Sadly, there are many of us whose stories haven't been heard because of the myth that adoption always leads to a better life.

Judy and Alan Lewis

maree.74's picture
Maree Lewis
03/03/1974
Australia, Queensland
06/04/1974
Hervey-Bay, Queensland, Australia
Darren Lewis, Jason Flegler and friends.

Sexual, Knife in me, Guns shot at me, Mental, Etc. 16 years of it.

Your Message
About Abuse: 

I just hate myself all the time. This has stuffed up my life as i have to take drugs to cope and no one understands it.

About adoption: 

I got adopted when i was 4 weeks old and i am not sure why.

Abuse Case File

I Was Here's picture
Annonymous
1970
Vietnam
1973
I was raised in a mostly white family in an all white community.
My abusers were my adoptive parents and their oldest biological son.

I was subjected to physical and mental abuse at the hands of my adoptive parents From June 1974 to December 1981.  The mental abuse continued from my adoptive mother from June 1974 and continued up to February 1993.  I also suffered sexual abuse from my adoptive parent's oldest biological son from 1977 to 1980.

Your Message
About Abuse: 

I continue to this day to have emotional scars and a physical scar.  I have intimacy issues with my spouse sometimes, which causes me to wonder if it has to do with the sexual abuse by my parent's oldest son.  Abuse of any kind towards any one, especially children should NOT be tolerated. 

About adoption: 

I don't believe in intercountry adoption because it separates the child from it's culture, language and self identity.  The child feels alienated within it's new culture in a predominantely white family.

Abuse Case File

iwasstolen's picture
Vanessa
May 18, 1969
India
April 1978
Nelson, British Columbia, Canada
Adopted mother and father

From April 1978 until October 1984 I was sexually and physcially abused by my adopted parents. They both had been found mentally unfit to adopt me but through private adoption were able to get me. I was kept in an attic with no light which was freezing cold in the winter and stiffling hot in the summer. I was starved alot of times as well. I was not allowed in the living room or kitchen except to clean. My life was such a nightmare that sleep became my only friend.

Your Message
About Abuse: 

The abuse I faced is hard to describe and put into words. it kills your soul and makes you think that you are no good and that you are meant to be abused. It makes you feel unloved and uncared for,It never goes away it is always there you just learn to live with it and the past because it will always be part of you.

About adoption: 

I for one do not support intercountry adoption. I beleive adoption is alread hard but when you bring a child from another country and place a minority child in a predominantly white area it damages that child.

My adopted parents were found unfit to adopt me and yet through private adoption were able to get me which is not right just beacause they  had money and I faced years of torture and abuse with no one to help me. I was finally taken away by social services. My adoption should never have been allowed because I had also been stolen from my family and then hidden and then adopted out. it is just wrong!!!!

Abuse Case File

mlassi65's picture
Infant Atwell
12 Dec 1965
El Paso, Texas
27 july 1966
Texas and Arizona
Abuser: Adoptive father and adoptive mother, Tom and Terry

Constant verbal abuse by both aparents. Physical abuse by afather until 14. Afather would put us in dangerous situations (example: line us up and shoot at us with live ammo, told to hold still). Afather set my play house on fire (with me in it) when I was five (he needed the insurance money). A passerby saw the fire and got me out. Afather was not happy. I cut all ties with aparents when I was 19.

Abuse Case File

audfica's picture
Audrey Fica
I was born on December 30th 1973
Grand Rapids, Michigan
I was placed in 1984
Coopersville Michigan
My agressive abuser was my adoptive mother. My passive abuser was my adoptive father.

As an adoptee I was subjected to mental, emotional, physical, and financial abuse.

Your Message
About Abuse: 

What more can you say about abuse other that is it wrong. Any type of abuse leaves wounds that will never heal. It amazes me what passes for non abusive  behavior. I see parents all around me doing things they should be embarassed about. Perhaps I am quick to judge, but keeping children safe is what ismost important here.

About adoption: 

I still believe that adoption is a wonderful option. However, I am against international adoption as well as interracial adoption. In both cases children are forced to live in a culture that claims to be more diverse it really is. 

I am very much against infant adoption. It has become a way to make money and the best interest of the child is no longer the main concern. I think every effort should be made to keep families together. I do realize that it is not always an option in those cases I think it is imperative that an infant be placed with a family of similar ethnicity, not the "next person on the list"

For the record, my husband and I are licensed foster parents. We believe that thought my childhood experience we can be effective, compassionate, loving care takers of children who can not be with their families. Our goal as foster parents is to take care of these kids like they are our own in the hopes that they can be reunited with their families

 

abuse case file

angel78's picture
angel78
30-06-1978
Bogota
april 1982
Netherlands
Boyfriend of my adopted mother, adopted brother

From the age of 4 until 12 years I have subject on sexual abuse by my adopted brother and later by the new boyfriend of my adopted mother

Your Message
About Abuse: 

From the time I can remember I have been abused by my adopted brother from the age of 4 until the age off 11. At the end we did not have sex anymore, it was only touching. When that stopped we became each other enemy. Why at that time I did not understand, my brother is the biologic son of my adopted parents. When my adopted parents got divorce, my adopted mother got her self a new boyfriend, and he was an actor, and played in many children movies. He also could not keep his hands home.

About adoption: 

I was adopted from Colombia, my father never knew I was gone by adoption, when he find out, I was already gone to the Netherlands.

I was 3 years, I have stayed in the ICBF for almost 3 years, just to make sure to get me official abandon ( while I wasn’t even abandon) My parents lost me by faith I think. I have found them back, and when they saw me they hoped I was doing well al those years, they were very sad to hear about my life, now I have join a group that come's up for the rights of adoptees, and by help of this group I have found myself for once, and make something of my life.

 

Abuse Case File

kimette's picture
kimette
I was born in 1966
I was born in Seoul, Korea
I was adopted at the end of 1975
Quebec, Canada
My abusers were my father, Leo Goudreau, and my mother Lorraine.

From 1979 to 1983, I was sexually abused by my father. From 1979 to 1989, I was subjected to verbal, emotional and physical abuse by my alcoholic mother. From 1983 to 1989, I was verbally abused by my father.

Your Message
About Abuse: 

My father had 5 biological children from his first marriage. I was the only one who had been abused. Asian girls are often seen as a exotic by western men.

My mother had no other child than me. She preferred to drink and beat me instead of protecting me from her housband.

Adoptive mothers of Asian daughters, be aware! Exporting countries of babies,  be aware! You are accoutable.

About adoption: 

The adoption agency and the orphanage didn't get the consent from my family before putting me up for adoption. They promised me to find my house when I gave them my address but but they never searched it. They erased my past and made a fake birth date to make me adoptable. I had a family but the adoption industry put me in a family and a country where I never fit in.  Now, I have no place where I fit in.

International adoption is not ethical.

Abuse Case File

almost human's picture
My name is Leanne Leith
I was born March 3rd, 1964
I was born near Seoul, Korea
I was adopted in 1966
I was raised in Taylor, Michigan, an all-white suburb of Detroit
My abuser was my father, a middle school band teacher named David F. Leith

From approximately 1967 to 1976 I was subjected to on-going sexual abuse at the hands of my father.

Your Message
About Abuse: 

Adopted children develop the kind of fatalism that naturally comes with having your life put in turmoil. That makes us especially vulnerable and maleable.

I think it is also a fundamental narcissistic tendency of ALL people to feel more tender towards their own progeny.

Of my adoptive father's four children, all of them biological but me, I was the only one abused.

About adoption: 

On top of being abused with no parent I could trust, being adopted with no history from which to derive identity, and no one to relate to either of these conditions -  add another layer of being an alien in another country, and others telling me repeatedly I did not fit in.  I can not for the life of me understand why anyone would want to subject a child to that kind of isolation, unless their need to be charitable outweighed all sense of reason.

I feel the great sums of money spent on one international adoption could support an entire family in distress, prop up social services to birthparents in crisis, or feed the starving.  There is a market, there is a product, and there are third world countries to exploit.  There is no need to rip a child from its heritage, culture, and identity to save it from a life of misery!  There IS a need to eliminate the forces tearing families apart.

International adoption is allowing countries to neglect their responsibilities towards its own citizens.  This is what adoption constitutes - a cop out - to spend less on its people or to gain money from its babies.  This is what prospective adoptive parents contribute to by supporting an industry that ignores everyone's voices except those with the most money, under the guise of charity.

Stop creating a market for the sale of babies.  Boycott international adoption.  It's the ethical thing to do. 

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