What is your favorite "adoption" song?

Question

Do you have a favorite song about adoption or a song that you identify with because of your adoption situation?

Mine is "Lightning Crashes" by Live. (I know it is about a friend of the band who died and her organs were donated as per her wishes. The song was inspired by the gift of life.) It fits my feelings about my personal experiences. I would love it if you would share yours with me.

Thanks in advance as I know for some it is a fun question but a painful one for others. :)

Answer 1

Janie's Got a gun

~Skid row

Anyone that knows my history of life with abusive a parents knows why

Answer 2

"Mother and Child Reunion" by Paul Simon

(I love this question, but I think you're right...  lots of potential for some sad stuff...)

Answer 3

Everything to Me - Mark Schultz (tag line is: "When you gave me up, oh you gave everything to me) Mark Schultz was adopted at birth.

Also like "When Love Takes You In" by Steven Curtis Chapman. Steven Curtis Chapman has adopted 3 daughters from China. Unfortunately the youngest, Maria,  just died in a tragic car accident.

Answer 4

Hi MamaKate!

It is too late for me to think coherently about this right now. I know there are a lot of songs I like, but they aren't springing to mind. I did include lyrics to 2 songs written from the perspective of adult adoptees (one by an adult adoptee, and one by her husband and music partner) as an answer to this question:

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;...

This question was very similar to yours, and there are a lot of interesting answers!

I tend to think about adoption mostly as it relates to my daughter -- as much as possible trying to empathize with what she might feel. We have an album she likes called "I see the Moon Too." It has a slightly modified version of this old song:

"I see the moon

The moon sees me

Down through the leaves of the old oak tree

Please let the light that shines on me

Shine on the one I love.

Over the mountains

Over the sea

Back where my heart is longing to be

Please let the light that shines on me

Shine on the one I love. "

I think that is sweetly poignant for an adopted child, and my daughter loves the album. I hope that it makes her feel she has my "permission" to be sad about missing her first (and second) family in China. And that it is okay to feel connected to them.

If I had to pick a song from my perspective as an adoptive parent (which is how I interpret your ACTUAL question, as opposed to what I just randomly feel like throwing out there! <grin>), then I would probably pick Lucy Kaplansky's song "This is Home." It isn't a perfect song -- a bit too romanticized and kind of dismissive of her daughter's losses (I think she was a PAP when she wrote it, so I'll cut her some slack on that -- I know becoming an >actual< parent has taught me immeasurably), but it describes both infertility and building a family through adoption (from China), and I don't know another song that comes close

When I found you I knew that you'd be mine

It wasn't my first kiss, it wasn't my first time

It was the first time I gave my heart when it wasn't just a loan

I put it in your hands and I followed you home.

Now I'm on the interstate wishing I could sleep

I see you lying in our bed, you're waiting up for me

And while I'm taking in the view I'm wishing I could give you what I wanted to

You know I want it too

chorus:

This is home, where I want to be

This is home, let's make a family

Baby you and me

Baby you and me

She's lying on a bed in some crowded room

Trying to sleep, not much else to do

The faces change around her, they speak to her sometimes

Seh's getting used to being left behind

When we find her we'll belong to her

We won't see her first smile, we won't hear her first word

But ours will be the first hearts she holds in her hands

She can keep them beside her in her very own room

chorus:

This is home, where I want to be

This is home, let's make a family

Baby you and me

Baby you and me"

Like I said, not a perfect song. That last line (before the final chorus), for instance kind of bugs me -- as if you sum up everything by saying "in her very own room." Well excuse me, but having your "very own room" is NOT a good enough reason for a child to be adopted!

But for all that it is still one of the most touching and "real" songs I know from a adoptive parent's perspective (as I said, closer to PAP really). I think it captures the love that is there before, the longing for a child, and the pain of infertility in a simple and poetic way. And I like the way she emphasizes that home and family is about love. Pretty good for a PAP!

I hope that did answer your question!

ETA:

I think my FAVORITE adoption songs are the ones from the perspective of adult adoptees that I posted on the other question. They both express the longing of a daughter for her mother or for "someone who looks like me." Both songs are beautiful and poignant and I feel very honored to count these women as friends also!  Check them out! I think I put links to listen to at least part of one of the songs also.

Answer 5

Jewel

Life Uncommon

Don't worry mother, It'll be alright

Don't worry sister say your prayers and sleep tight

And it will be fine, lover of mine, it'll be just fine.

Lend your voices only to sounds of freedom

No longer lend your strength to that which you wish to be free from,

Fill your lives with love and bravery and you shall lead,

A life uncommon. ( chorus )

I've heard you anguish, I've heard your hearts cry out

We are tired, we are weary but we aren't worn out

Set down your chains, till only faith remains, set down your chains.

(Chorus)

There are plenty of people who pray for peace, but if praying were enough, it would have come to be,

Let your words enslave no-one, and the heavens will hush themselves to hear, our voices ring out clearly to sounds of freedom. Sounds of freedom.

come on you unbelievers, move out of the way,

there is a new army coming, and we are armed with faith,

to live, we must give, to live.

Chorus 2X

Answer 6

There actually IS an adoption song written by the musician husband of Mary Jo Rillera about relinquishing and finding a child lost to adoption.  

About the first mom:

"She had a child, whose not a child anymore. She said 'goodbye' and tried closing that door."

And the adoptive parents re:the adoptee's questions:

"But there were times & there were questions, they couldn't answered if they tried."

It ends with, "They're together now, all together now..." in reunion.  Very moving.

I can't remember all of the words. It was in 1982 or so that I had a tape of this great song.

On the other hand...not really an "adoption" song.  But the song, "Separate Ways" by Journey, because it played A LOT during my search (1983)

Here we stand, worlds apart, hearts broken in two, two, two

Sleepless nights, losing ground I'm reaching for you, you, you

Feelin' that it's gone can change your mind

If we can't go on to survive the tide love divides

Someday love will find you, break those chains that bind you

One night will remind you, how we touched and went our separate ways.

If he ever hurts you, true love won't desert you

You know I still love you, though we touched and went our separate ways

Troubled times, caught between confusions and pain, pain, pain...Distant eyes, promises we made were in vain, vain, vain.  If you must go, I wish you love. You'll never walk alone,

Take care my love, miss you love

ETA:  OMG! You had to mention the Beatles!  How could I forget?  When I was 16 & pregnant with my daughter (& scared, of course), I saw a movie in our 'school for pregnant minors' about a mom relinquishing her child at 18 months - the same age I was when taken from my (poor working separated) mother & placed in a foster home, where I was eventually adopted. The girl in this movie looked alot like me at 18 months.  AND...the BEATLES song was

There are places I remember

All my life though some have changed

Some forever, not for better

Some have gone and some remain

All these places have their moments

With lovers and friends I still can recall

Some are dead and some are living

In my life I've loved them all

But of all these friends and lovers

There is no one compares with you

And these memories lose their meaning

When I think of love as something new

Though I know I'll never lose affection

For people and things that went before

I know I'll often stop and think about them

In my life I love you more

Though I remember I’ll never lose affection

For people and things that went before

I know I’ll often stop and think about them

In my life I’ll love you more

In my life I’ll love you more

Answer 7

I dont know the name of it,, its 3 doors down and it says ,, 100 days have made me older since the last time that i saw ur pretty face,  that was the song that always made me think of my birthmother,,and when i found her,, it was her favorite too,, so it made it more special !!!

Answer 8

So many song make me think of so very many parts of my life.  But, I have to say that Paul Simon's "Mother and Child Reunion" has always been the song that consistently makes me think about adoption.  So, I'll go with that one, like Phil.

Samone, I never knew Skid Row covered Aerosmith's "Janie's Got a Gun."  As an Aerosmith fan, I've always loved that song.  Apparently, Skid Row did, too.  I'll have to check out their version.

Answer 9

REM Everybody Hurts...

And Sarah MacLaughlen gets me all the time.. with just about every song I can hear " adoption"..of course, she is an adoptee.

Gt me PMSing though and I can pretty much find it in anything...This month I was obsessed with Amy Winehouse's "Back to Black''...totally missed the drug refences in my version:

You went back to what you knew

So far removed from all that we went through

And I tread a troubled track

My odds are stacked

I'll go back to black

We only said good-bye with words

I died a hundred times

You go back to her

And I go back to  black

I go back to us

I love you much

It's not enough.....

.

Answer 10

Celine Dion's a New Day Has Come

I was adopted the year that came out, meant the world to me.

A new day...

A new day...

I was waiting for so long

For a miracle to come

Everyone told me to be strong

Hold on and don't shed a tear

Through the darkness and good times

I knew I'd make it through

And the world thought I had it all

But I was waiting for you

Hush, love

I see a light in the sky

Oh, it's almost blinding me

I can't believe

I've been touched by an angel with love

Let the rain come down and wash away my tears

Let it fill my soul and drown my fears

Let it shatter the walls for a new son...

A new day has... come

Where it was dark now there's light

Where there was pain now there's joy

Where there was weakness, I found my strength

All in the eyes of a boy

Hush, love

I see a light in the sky

Oh, it's almost blinding me

I can't believe

I've been touched by an angel with love

Let the rain come down and wash away my tears

Let it fill my soul and drown my fears

Let it shatter the walls for a new son....

A new day has...come

Let the rain come down and wash away my tears

Let it fill my soul and drown my fears

Let it shatter the walls for a new son...

A new day has... come

Ohhh, a light

Hush, now

I see a light in your eyes

All in the eyes of the boy

I can't believe

I've been touched by an angel with love

I can't believe

I've been touched by an angel with love

Hush, Now,

A new Day

Answer 11

"Innocent Child" by Big Audio Dynamite

Answer 12

"Don't think twice, it's all right"  sung by Bob Dylan.

I like this song in an ironic sense, as an adoptee it is meaningful on so many levels.  

Through reunion, I've learned that this song came out the year of my gestation and birth and that my first mother listened to it often while she was pregnant with me.  

It has always made me weep with despair...ever since I was a young child.  That's OK, though, I don't mind being abandoned....

Don't think twice, it's all right.

ETA: In case anyone doesn't know the lyrics:

It ain't no use to sit and wonder why, babe

If’in you don’t know by now

An' it ain't no use to sit and wonder why, babe

It’ll never do some how.

When your rooster crows at the break of dawn

Look out your window and I'll be gone

You're the reason I'm trav'lin' on

Don't think twice, it's all right

It ain't no use in turnin' on your light, babe

That light I never knowed

An' it ain't no use in turnin' on your light, babe

I'm on the dark side of the road

but I wish there was somethin' you would do or say

To try and make me change my mind and stay

We never did too much talkin' anyway

So don't think twice, it's all right

It ain't no use in callin' out my name, gal

Like you never done before

It ain't no use in callin' out my name, gal

I can't hear you any more

I'm a-thinkin' and a-wond'rin' walkin’ down the road

I once loved a woman, a child I'm told

I give her my heart but she wanted my soul

But don't think twice, it's all right

So long, Honey Babe

Where I'm bound, I can't tell

But Goodbye's too good a word, babe

So I'll just say fare thee well

I ain't sayin' you treated me unkind

You could have done better but I don't mind

You just kinda wasted my precious time

But don't think twice, it's all right

Answer 13

I wonder by Kelly Pickler

I still Miss You by Keith Anderson

He would Be Sixteen by Michelle Wright.  

When this song came out, I bawlled a like a baby.  It was the first acknowledgement of my adoption in myself.

Answer 14

"Somewhere Out There"  from the Movie American Tale

Answer 15

He would be sixteen by Michelle Wright.

I am not a country fan by any stretch but this one makes me bawl.

My favorite s***w adoption song would have to be Sick Of You by Gwar cuz I am SO sick of adoption.

Answer 16

Mamakate no disrespect.

Come people, thumbs down for answering about their favorite songs????

Give me the thumbs down and leave them alone!

Answer 17

I have 3

Ludacris ft Mary J Blige - Runaway Love

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7OSqzchd...

Queensryche - Silent Lucidity

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3QSkux3v...

supremes love child

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2DYcHysN...