Chosen

By Christina Sparks

The process of my adoption journey began at 6 months. My biological parents weren’t in a position to give me the life I deserved and turned me over to Buckerner’s Benvolage an adoption agency out of Dallas. At that point my adoption became a closed one and I left behind 2 siblings. Now the adoption process isn’t for the faint of heart. It can take years to be approved, and it took four years for my adopted family to be approved. During those years, I was not thought of yet, but during their adoption process, there was a bunch of legal paperwork they had to go through and financial obligations. It’s a rigorous process with inspections, interviews, and lets downs. After the years of waiting my parents got the call from the agency that they had a baby girl, and without hesitation they dropped everything to drive through the night to get me. It was a spur of the moment situation where they had nothing for a baby at that time. God has a sense of humor and excellent timing. I was brought home on Thanksgiving Day, 1989.

I was adopted by Stephen and Elaine Sparks, raised in Hooks, Texas with two older brothers, and a large extended family.

I learned I was adopted when I was in the 3rd grade because I noticed I did not look like my
family. (If you’ve ever watched the blindside I was that colored one in the family photo.) My family, for the most part, were all blonde and blue eyed and then there was me-black hair and brown eyes and olive complexion. I started questioning and eventually was told about my adoption. To say I handle it well would be a lie because at the mere age of nine, I took it pretty hard.

I struggled with identity issues and self worth up until my 30s when I finally found my biological sisters that were talked about in my adoption papers. Though my adoption was a closed adoption, 23 & Me brought us back together and I finally felt those missing pieces in my life were whole again.

Not only did I grow up with the best family a girl could ever ask for but I finally got to see myself in my sisters and I could see my characteristics of my personality both in nature and in nurture of the family that raised me. I wouldn’t change my adoption for the world.