Vol. 6, No. 2• May 2002

What adoption means to me

by Matthew Wayne Price, age 11, Cooleemee, NC

What adoption means to me. Adoption is a new life for me and my sister. I have an enormous family. I have a new Mom and Dad, three new sisters, and one new brother. I also have new grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. My favorite person is my cousin Mark. I met him when my Dad and I went to Oklahoma last summer. We spent a lot of time together. We went swimming, fishing, snipe hunting (which I did not like! I got scared).

I also love my Grandpa Wayne, my Dad’s Dad. He is really neat. He has a tire shop in Pauls Valley Oklahoma. His shop has a lot of neat old things in it and he has lots of stories to tell about them. I liked helping him work when we were there. When we got back home it was almost time for my adoption and I got to change my middle name, which is Matthew. I didn’t like my first name, it was Terry. I got to choose a new middle name. I decided I wanted it to be Wayne like my new Grandpa. So my name now is Matthew Wayne Price. I like that a lot and my Grandpa likes it too.

I made my Dad and Mom happy too. They are really neat too. Even though they adopted my sister and I, they still foster other children. I have two foster brothers and a foster sister right now. My Mom and Dad love children. We do lots of things together. We go on picnics, to ball games, to the park and sometimes out to dinner and a movie. The best part about it is we always do it as a family. We also go to church as a family too. I like it when we do things together.

My Mom and Dad are special because they let us see our birth parents. That is important to me because now I know that they are doing better and changing their lives. Another thing that is special about my parents is that they help me with school work, and projects, and see that I have what I need for school so I can improve my grades.

That is what adoption means to me, a new and better life.