Rainbow families: Cross-cultural adoption and the best interests of the child.

Adoption is a process where people who are not biologically related to each other come together to create a family. When parents adopt children whose ethnicity is other than the parents, this is known as cross-cultural adoption. There are many people who believe that culture and ethnicity are the most important factors in determining whether children should be adopted, stating that children should only be adopted into families who share the same ethnicity and culture. Cross-cultural adoption can and does create families and is one such alternative that presents an option which provides permanency for children. It is in the child's best interest to be raised in a family rather than in foster care. Borrowing from the grounded theory approach, using snowball sampling, comparative data, ethnography and thematic analysis, this study will examine the experiences of families formed through cross-cultural adoption. As a parent to four children who joined my family through cross-cultural adoption, my lived experiences are woven throughout the thesis through the process of auto-ethnography. Final analysis confirm that cross-cultural adoption can and does work when children are encouraged to learn about their culture and ethnicity, are taught to be proud of their heritage and history, and have been encouraged to hold themselves in high regard.