Woman Forgives Adoptive Parents Who Hid Her Race for 19 Years: 'Supporter'
By
Melissa Fleur Afshar
Life and Trends Reporter
Most
children take their parents' words as gospel while growing up, but
Melissa Guida-Richards had more than a few reasons to question what her
parents told her.
The 31-year-old's life went through a seismic
shift after she discovered at the age of 19 that she had been adopted
from Bogotá, Colombia. Her Italian-Portuguese parents, who are based in
the U.S., had always kept Guida-Richards' adoption story hidden from
her. For nearly two decades, she lived under the assumption that she was
biologically related to her parents, who had chosen to raise her in a
"colorblind" environment, in which she was oblivious to her true ethnic
heritage.
"Love is not enough in adoption. Children need support and resources,"
Guida-Richards said, warning about emotional issues if the latter is not
provided. "When you take a child and place them in a family of another
ethnicity, the parents need to incorporate that child's birth culture
and hygiene needs, like hair care, and provide racial mirrors of people
that look like them."
"Like many adoptees of color, I was raised by a white
American family," Guida-Richards, who went on to publish a book about
her experience, told Newsweek. "I grew up in the middle-class suburbs of New York and was very sheltered.
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