Sibling Love in Adoption

Sibling Love in Adoption by Ahnah Katsis

I have never felt any different growing up being adopted and having biological siblings. I am one of those people who is obsessed with my family and very close to all my siblings. My parents adopted 3 kids before having 2 biological children. I am the oldest and always felt the same amount of love from our parents, sometimes knowing that I am the favorite child.

There is a term in the adoption world and it is called “gotcha day”. It refers to the day that a child was adopted and a lot of families have little celebrations on that day. My family has never celebrated that day with any of us adopted kids and a lot of kids I know that were also adopted do not celebrate it. I feel as if it is almost more negative than positive. I do not need a day to celebrate when I was adopted. When my parents took me home from the hospital after I was born is the day that I believe I was adopted. I feel like if we did celebrate it, then it is just a constant reminder that I am a little different than their biological children. I feel like for any adopted child when they have biological siblings, all the kids are equal in their parents eyes and do not need to be celebrated extra because we are all loved the same. 

My relationship with not only my biological siblings, but all my siblings, is great! I think sometimes people might think its hard to be super close to their family when there are 8 kids, but I have always been. I would pick hanging out with my family over friends 9/10 times because I love being around them. There even is a huge age gap between me and my youngest brother. I am 23 and he is 7, yet I love hanging out with him and being with him because it brings me so much joy. Hanging out with any of my siblings does. My youngest sister is 14 and one of the biological siblings and she is one of the funniest people I have ever met and we get along just how any sisters would. We will always love each other and have the other’s back, but we sure can fight about the most petty things but still love each other the same. There are many similarities between me and my siblings. Just the way we act, talk, or sometimes look. People have told me that me and my youngest sister look alike which is crazy to me. Obviously every person is different but the way our parents raised us we act and talk the same. 

I would have to say that the reason I am so close to my siblings is because of the way our parents raised us. They did/are doing an amazing job. They never forced us to be close and act the same, but just in the way we have grown up we do. I think it is so important to be close to your siblings and I am so lucky that I am because I don’t know how I would live if I wasn’t. My family is the best thing that has ever happened to me and I wouldn’t want to change it for the world.