An Adoption Story: Meet the Swanigans
When I met my now husband, in 2016, we were immediately drawn to each other by some striking similarities. We have the same burn in the same place on our bodies. We have the same age difference between us and our oldest sibling. And we both have family members that from the outside looking in, no one would know, joined us in a non-traditional way.
Like most African American families, we had “play cousins and play aunties” but we were adamant to remove the word ‘play’. For us, even though these family members did not share the same DNA, we loved them deeply and were connected to them the same as our blood relatives. This is why when the topic of adoption came up, we were both all in. The decision was not contingent upon our ability to have biological children of our own. It was not an ‘if’ but a ‘when’. Because biology does have a definitive timeline, we decided to move forward with family planning through our own pregnancy first shortly after getting married in 2019. We were able to get pregnant twice but suffered miscarriages in both instances. While disappointing, we were excited to pivot to pursuing adoption in 2021. What we quickly learned is that adoption is not an easy path.
The process is expensive, time consuming, and emotionally taxing but centering the adoptee is what makes the difference. It is an exercise of intentional self-awareness. What makes this even more complex is the cultural aspect. No one in our broader family had been officially adopted
And we began to see the challenges that many African Americans face first hand to contribute to not making things official. We were operating from a place of privilege and an exception to most African American families pursuing adoption.
We knew that once our adoption was finalized, we would need to commit to systematically improving the rate of adoption in our community. In March 2023, we matched with an expectant mom. In April 2023, we brought Baby Trey home.
In August 2023, I became a board member with WAT!, a non-profit missioned to help African-Americans fund adoptions and bring awareness to adoption overall.
Adoption has been an incredibly transformative experience for us. We hope that our story encourages others to pursue adoption, not as a Plan B, but as an opportunity to center healthy parenting in our community and ensuring black children can thrive.
Your partnership means more families like the Swanigans can experience the blessing of building their family through adoption.
Thank you.
OUR MISSION
To encourage and support Black families in pursuing private adoption in the United States and financially support nonprofit organizations that serve orphaned, needy, and abandoned children in the Republic of Ghana.
