it’s what we should do
I’d like to introduce you to a little
girl I once knew her name is Julie dawn
and she was named after her father
Julian Julian was known as the Spaniard
where he was living at the time in
Newmarket England her mother Irene was
English and originated from the area of
Kent but Irene and Julian were not able
to raise their daughter due to
complicated circumstances and so upon
her birth she was secret away into
foster care
it’s interesting that at the time of her
placement into foster care she was no
longer considered a baby now she was now
called a matter for the country of
England to settle she was a mater a
complication of predicament as innocent
as this child was she was judged before
she could even speak she was labeled as
a difficult to place child before she
even knew what identity was her social
worker wrote of her Julie Don is a
strange-looking child she is very dark
in coloring and in complexion and
presumably takes after her father the
Spaniard but Julie Don was fortunate she
landed into the home of a kind of foster
carer by the name of mrs. hip khun’s who
wrote letters to whomever might one day
adopt this little girl she wrote about
her likes and her dislikes how she liked
to sit outside in her stroller taking in
a crisp English air how she did not like
bath time these letters written on blue
paper were eventually given to the
American family who would adopt little
Julie Don and they offered those letters
some sense of familiarity of a child
that would now be entering their family
for good and once again everything
changed for Julie Don even her name
changed to Michelle you see I am Julie
Don I’m a former foster child an
international adoptee but I’m not here
solely to share my story of adoption
with you now I have seventeen point
eight million other stories from around
the world to share with you and another
some five hundred
and stories to share with you from right
here in the United States there are 17
point 8 million children around the
world who are orphaned or being raised
in orphanages there are over 500,000
kids in u.s. foster care today 25,000
kids aged out of foster care every year
in the United States without having been
adopted meaning they don’t have a family
of the 25,000 kids who age out of foster
care every year in the u.s. without a
family 25 percent of them become
homeless 30 percent will be pregnant
before the age of 20 and 56% remain
unemployed in addition 80 percent of
prisoners in the United States have come
through the foster system at some point
in their lives
eighty percent of trafficking victims
have been through the foster care system
at some point in their lives what do you
think are the stories that these orphans
and Foster’s have told themselves about
their worth and their potential what do
you think are the stories that others
have told them about their worth what
messages are we sending as a world
community you see when I was in UK
foster care I was given that title of a
difficult to place child and it was an
unfair label but it was a label that I
believed for a very long time and I’m
not alone every orphan every foster
child has been unfairly labeled the
truth is they possess limitless
potential their circumstances do not
define who they are they’re human beings
just like you and me they long for love
and family and connection a safe and
secure place to call home but all too
often they are branded they are
marginalized due to what’s happening
outside of their control and none of it
none of it defines who they are or the
universe of promise that they hold the
result of all of this is that millions
of children around the world
offering as I speak to you you see
society judges what it has yet to
understand there does exist in our
society a double standard of grand
proportion we celebrate figures and
characters from literature and religion
who have been adopted orphaned fostered
think of Moses think of Superman Harry
Potter Tarzan Cinderella we celebrate
these characters in these figures but
real adoptees living and breathing
orphans and foster care foster care kids
are they’re made to feel ashamed of
their stories they’re silenced from
their truth they’re told that they are
somehow broken somehow lesser than the
rest of us and that’s a heavy burden for
a child to carry on his or her shoulders
and for every child who carries that
burden we must evolve what is the world
missed because children without families
have been told that their stories do not
matter what have we missed within this
global epidemic of building borders that
separate us from hearing the cry of a
child without a home you see it is my
mission that the world is no longer
willing to miss their cries no longer
willing to miss the treasures that these
kids possess and so I work to eradicate
the myth and a shine a light of who
these kids really are and if I can do
that with your help together we could
change the very way adoption is
perceived and here is the super cool
thing adoption has so much to teach us
in a political climate where we are all
too often talking about building walls
and borders to separate us adoption
stands is the living blueprint of how to
these are my kids Christian and blue was
delivered into my life
biologically Ian in red was delivered
into my life via adoption from Russia
and Evie Anna there in the center was
delivered into my life
via adoption from Ethiopia we are a
family of different skin tones but we
are one United family threaded together
by love you see adoption teaches us that
family has very little to do with
biology but everything to do with love
adoption shows us the transformational
power of loving beyond the borders a
bloodline adoption has taught me as an
adoptee and as an adoptive parent that
there is miracle in a messiness of life
and it takes but one person to see the
miracle in the mess and to say to a
child I believe in you one person to see
the miracle in that mess to tear down
the wall and say to a child I dedicate
my life to loving you 17.8 million
orphans around the world and 500,000
foster kids right here in the US or
asking us to take courage to stand up
and to say tear down the walls tear down
the walls of government her down the
walls of judgment tear down the walls of
the mind and of the heart dissolve the
borders that keep children from finding
their forever families how did we ever
create borders around a love that knows
nothing of division the very essence of
adoption breathes inclusion this is my
family today and together we represent
four different countries of origin but
there are no borders between us we are a
quilt of different patterns fabrics
textures tones places of origin but we
are one united tribe I believe
that the foster children and the orphans
of the world will one day find their
forever families when we as a society
evolve to the shared belief that no
matter our ethnicity no matter our
religion no matter our places of origin
we can be brother and sister parent and
child you know it was activist and
entertainer Josephine Baker who adopted
12 children in her day by the way who
said surely the day will come when color
means nothing more than the skin tone
when religion is seen uniquely as a way
to speak one’s soul when birthplaces
have the weight of a throw of the dice
and all men are born free when
understanding breeds love and
brotherhood that my friends is
borderless love and it is the kind of
love that can bring the lost children of
this world home borderless love that can
bring us home to each other
borderless love that can bring us home to ourselves