Rooted in Love

Talia

From across the ocean, I schedule a time over WhatsApp with Talia from Minnesota. I zoom in on the picture she shares, and see her beautiful family — her, her husband, their two daughters, and her parents, who look like they might just burst with nachas. It’s your standard Erev Shabbos photo with everyone in their festive best. There’s one glaring difference, though, and it’s that Talia doesn’t look anything like her parents.

Talia was adopted at four months old from Colombia. After her parents realized they wouldn’t be able to have children, they decided to adopt. Talia doesn’t know much about her biological parents because it was a closed adoption, but believes they were very poor and just couldn’t handle a child.

“I feel like the word ‘saved’ better describes how I feel than the word ‘adopted.’ My parents, who gave me everything, saved me from growing up poor, underprivileged, and Christian. I was converted at four months old, and then at 12 I had to choose Yiddishkeit for myself, which was a very big deal. But I have tremendous hakaras hatov that my biological parents gave me up for adoption, as well as to my parents for adopting me. I feel like the luckiest person alive.”

When I ask Talia if she has tried to meet her biological parents, she explains that she isn’t very interested, and besides, she doesn’t speak the language and there’s a yawning cultural divide. She sounds calm and content. When she describes her feelings toward her adoptive parents, her emotions run high.