Girls Adoption Connect & Téa Tamburo
Hi, I'm Téa Tamburo and am the founder of Girls Adoption Connect. I've noticed a lot of new people finding this page, so I thought I'd share a bit about myself and what this page is.
I was born in Yiyang and was found at the gates to the Yiyang Social Welfare Institute when I was a day old. When I was nine months old, my parents, both of whom are white, adopted me from Changsha in Hunan, China in September 2005. As a kid, they got me books about families formed through adoption and we talked about Chinese culture. They also enrolled me in Sunday Mandarin classes when I was about 3-years-old. It wasn't until I started elementary school that I realized my family was different than my peers'.
When I was going into eighth grade, my family took a homeland tour. We saw my finding spot and visited my orphanage. I saw photos of the girls I was adopted with, the places those photos were taken and their all-white families holding them. I didn’t think it was possible to feel so connected to girls I didn't remember knowing.
Coming home, I sent letters to the girls I was adopted alongside. After talking, I realized I wanted to meet more adoptees in the community and create a place for us to share our experiences. So, I started Girls Adoption Connect as a way to connect everyone in the international, transracial and domestic adoptee community.
Prior to connecting with my group and starting Girls Adoption Connect, I didn't really think much about my identity as an adoptee. If anything, I used to see being transracially adopted as something that made me different — not something that's given me family and a sense of belonging. One of the things that drove me to start Girls Adoption Connect was discovering what this identity means to me and wanting to further connect the greater adoptee community. While we might not all have the same experiences, I wanted to create a place for us all to find belonging within our shared identity as adoptees.
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[Description: On a dusty pink and pale pink background are two photos. The larger photo is of Girls Adoption Connect's gray logo. It says "Girls Adoption Connect" inside a floral wreath outline. The smaller photo shows Téa. Large text says "Reintroducing Girls Adoption Connect."]