National Adoption Day is November 20. On this day, many children who are in foster care are adopted into their forever families. Foster care is a place where children are loved and care for while waiting for adoption.
Did you know that many famous people are adopted? Simone Biles, Babe Ruth, and Nelson Mandela are just a few people who grew up in families with adoptive parents.
You might have seen Lana Condor in movies. Lana was adopted when she was four months old. At the time, she lived in an orphanage in Vietnam. An orphanage is a place where children without parents are cared for. Lana’s parents, Bob and Mary, adopted Lana and her brother from the orphanage.
Lana recently traveled to Vietnam with Michelle Obama, where they were working to promote education for girls. While there, Lana visited the orphanage where she lived as a baby and met the person who gave her and her brother to her adoptive parents.
Lana and her brother were the only Asian students at her school growing up. Although she had a loving family, Lana felt different from other kids. Some of the kids even called her names. Lana says that the trip to Vietnam helped her feel even more connected to her past and to her community.
Now Lana hopes that she has a long career as an actor, because she wants to help other people feel less of an outsider and less lonely.
What Do You Think? Why do you think the trip to Vietnam was so important to Lana? How could she help other people feel less lonely by acting in movies?
Photo Credit: Elizabeth Goodenough/Everett Collection/Alamy Stock Photo
