I was born somewhere in northern Ethiopia towards the end of 1985 and adopted via private adoption to Canada in 1987. I do not have any reliable information about my background as there is no paper trail. The lack of information and my inability to get answers started to torment me in my adult years. Reflecting on the injustices in adoption through reading critical perspectives such as Trenka, Oparah, and Shin's 2006 books Outsiders Within: Writing on Transracial Adoption catapulted me into the world of adoptee advocacy. I was eager to connect with adoptees sharing critical perspectives on adoption by weaving the personal with the political and I felt a deep sense of liberation and belonging which I had never experienced before.

As I became active in adoptee circles, I noticed the lack of Ethiopian adoptees there. After a series of adoptee suicides, including of Fisseha Sol Samuel, fellow adoptee advocate Aselefech Evans and I created a closed Facebook group for Ethiopian adoptees. We wanted to understand the low level of visibility of Ethiopian adoptees and felt it was imperative to break the isolation experienced by many adoptees by creating a safe space where they could connect with other adoptees and feel a sense of community.

Admittedly, I had unrealistic expectations about the group; I imagined compelling discussions and a slew of exciting project ideas, however, there was not much engagement at first. Nonetheless, adoptees messaged us privately telling us how happy they were to have a space for Ethiopian adoptees.

I continued my quest for more Ethiopian adoptee engagement and discovered public French Ethiopian adoptee groups where many discussions were happening about returning to Ethiopia for travel and to find family. I quickly started chatting with dozens of adoptees for months, sometimes lasting into the early hours of the morning. I was ecstatic about their openness to discuss their experiences and to know more about adoption from France and French perceptions of adoption.

This essay draws on a combination of discussions with adoptees (particularly Ethiopian French adoptees), personal experiences, and academic research. Research on international adoption tends to focus on adoptees’ ability to adapt to their adoptive families and their new environment. This research is usually conducted by non-adoptee academics who tend to be adoptive parents or former adoption professionals.