Borders adds that her research does not say all is perfect in adoptive families. Environmental and genetic factors can play a role. Adopted children tend to have more learning disabilities and compulsive behaviors. Part of my argument is that adoption gets labeled for whatever problems adoptive children have. For some kids, the problem is they weren't adopted soon enough.
Preliminary findings show many similarities and some differences.
She's been surprised by the response. Surveys have been returned with long stories attached. One woman wrote in detail about the day she and her adoptive mother met her birth mother during her two-family reunion. They spent hours sharing stories while sitting under a tree at a picnic table. And then some people we heard from are still really hurting.