Reading adoption quotes can be inspiring and encouraging, especially when you’re in the midst of your adoption wait. A lot of effort goes into adopting a baby, including paperwork, interviews, home visits, your adoption video, and your adoption website, to name a few of the tasks involved before adopting.
Waiting for your sweet child to join your family isn’t a passive experience. So it helps when you have as much support and encouragement as possible. Reading adoption quotes is an excellent method to lift your mood and feel connected to the adoption community.
Keep your heart and mind busy with encouraging words to lift your mood and help you feel connected to the adoption community. If you happen to face an obstacle in your adoption journey, re-visiting this list of adoption quotes can put you into a positive frame of mind.
Below we’ve listed some of our favorite quotes on adoption. You might save this list to your phone or your Internet favorites, so you can quickly access it when you need extra encouragement during your open adoption journey.
- “In adoption, a child is not given up. A birth mother gives life, a child a family, unconditional love. She gives a part of her heart that will never feel whole. She gives another mother a part of her heart that was missing…you give a lot, just never give up.”
– Terra Cooper - “Anyone who ever wondered how much they could love a child who did not spring from their own loins knows this: it is the same. The feeling of love is so profound, it’s incredible and surprising.”
– Actress Nia Vardalos
- “LOVE is what really makes an adoptive family. There are no mistakes. You are wanted, loved, and chosen to be in our forever family.”
– Adoption expert, adoptive mother, and Founder of Lifetime Adoption, Mardie Caldwell 
“However motherhood comes to you, it’s a miracle.”
– Valerie Harper- “Was it the act of giving birth that made you a mother?…I had a woman who had chosen to give me up; on the other, I had a woman who’d sat up with me at night when I was sick as a child, who’d cried with me over boyfriends, who’d clapped fiercely at my law school graduation. Which acts made you more of a mother? Both, I realized. Being a parent wasn’t just about bearing a child. It was about bearing witness to its life.”
– Author Jodi Picoult, in the book Handle with Care - “Every child deserves a home and love. Period.”
– Dave Thomas - “Through adoption, Americans can forever change not only a child’s life but also their own.”
-Former President George W. Bush - “Oh no. He’s our son. He was meant to be ours…he was meant to be matched with us. So it’s perfect.”
– Connie Chung, in response to an interview question if adoption causes her to look at her son differently - “She wanted and loved her baby; she decided an adoption plan was the best choice for the baby.”
– Adoption expert, adoptive mother, and Founder of Lifetime Adoption, Mardie Caldwell - “My adoption was treated as a celebration.”
Michael Reagan, former President Ronald Reagan’s adopted son - “After all, children are children no matter their background.”
– Julie Andrews - “Biology is the least of what makes someone a mother.”
– Oprah Winfrey - “He is mine in a way that he will never be hers, yet he is hers in a way that he will never be mine, and so together, we are motherhood.”
– Desha Wood - “Time and experience have taught me a priceless lesson: Any child you take for your own becomes your own if you give of yourself to that child. I have born two children and had seven others by adoption, and they are all my children, equally beloved and precious.”
– Dale Evans - “I am a living testament you can be adopted and successful.”
– Daunte Culpepper - “It has been said that adoption is more like a marriage than a birth: two (or more) individuals, each with their own unique mix of needs, patterns and genetic history, coming together with love, hope, commitment for a joint future. You become a family not because you share the same genes, but because you share love for each other.”
– Joan McNamara - “Adoption isn’t a birth mother’s rejection but an unconditional love that inspires her to put herself last and do all she can for her baby.”
– Mary Hines, Birth Mother - “Adoption is not about finding children for families, it’s about finding families for children.”
– Joyce Maguire Pavao - “We look at adoption as a very sacred exchange. It was not done lightly on either side. I would dedicate my life to this child.”
– Jamie Lee Curtis - “A birth mother puts the needs of her child above the wants of her heart.”
– Skye Hardwick - “To adopt a child is a great work of love. When it is done, much is given, but much is also received. It is a true exchange of gifts.”
– Pope John Paul II - “They may not have my eyes, they may not have my smile, but they have all my heart.”
– Unknown - “Always remember you were born in my heart.”
– Adoption expert, adoptive mother, and Founder of Lifetime Adoption, Mardie Caldwell - “Not of my flesh, nor of my bone, but still miraculously my own. Never forget for a single minute, you didn’t grow under my heart, but in it.”
– Fleur Conkling Heyliger
“However motherhood comes to you, it’s a miracle.”
“After all, children are children no matter their background.”
“I have a lot of respect for my birth mother…I know she must have had a lot of love for me to want to give what she felt was a better chance.”
– Faith Hill
“We look at adoption as a very sacred exchange. It was not done lightly on either side. I would dedicate my life to this child.”
Do you have a favorite adoption quote? Please share it with us by leaving a comment below!
Editor’s Note: This article was originally published on August 19, 2014, and has since been updated.
Heidi Keefer is a Content Creator for Lifetime Adoption and has over 15 years of experience in the field of adoption. An author of thousands of articles and social media posts over the years, Heidi enjoys finding new ways to educate and captivate Lifetime’s ever-growing list of subscribers.
Heidi has a keen eye for misplaced apostrophes, comma splices, and well-turned sentences, which she has put to good use as a contributor to Lifetime’s award-winning blogs. She has written and published hundreds of adoption articles which explore the various facets of domestic infant adoption today.
Just wanted to send an edit – it’s “you didn’t grow UNDER my heart, but in it.” It is incorrect in the quote at the top of and in the body of your post. Otherwise, love having access to these great quotes!
Thank you for letting us know, Kira! It’s been corrected in both spots. We’re glad that you enjoyed these adoption quotes!
“I didn’t make your body, I made your mind and heart”
Sheri Sand (educator / psychotherapist)
Adoptive Mother
Thank you for sharing your quote, Sheri!
A heart to love and a home to share is the foundation of a loving and caring family! Nothing else really matters!
Sujatha Balakrishnan
A proud adoptive grandmom