Fall 2024 Winner of the Adopted Child Scholarship
Anderson Jianxiao Acord
Anderson Jianxiao Acord has been named the winner of the Fall 2024 Adopted Child Scholarship. A freshman at the University of Houston, Anderson is participating in an 8-year BS/MD degree program with his current university and the Baylor College of Medicine. We wish Anderson luck on his exciting academic and career journey.
Read Anderson’s Essay:
Prior to turning ten, I encountered the concept of adoption for the first time. The unfamiliar term became my reality as I was about to experience it myself. For almost ten years, I didn’t even comprehend that I was a foster child, nevertheless knowing the meaning of being “fostered.” In fact, for the first three years of my life, I did not recall the time and place where my beloved birth mother left me behind in a fruit basket near a police station at Wangling village. I don’t recall the early surgical procedure that resulted in an intricate stitch sewn into my left wrist due to my congenital limb difference known as radial aplasia.
My concrete memories of life and family emerged in a loving family of three at Fengming Village: a household mother who maintained our crop yields and always made the best steamed buns for me, a hardworking father who constructed buildings all day long and still was able to take me out at night for beef skewers in our favorite street court, and an older brother in high school who shared endless hours of video games with me. I truly thought I was destined to be part of this life forever. However, on a random school day, the head director of the Zibo Children’s Welfare Center, the place that provided medical care and shelter during my first three years of life, walked into our house and instructed me to reside in the welfare center (orphanage) for three weeks. In those weeks, I was extremely perplexed. Why am I here? Why am I suddenly learning English? Were mom and dad aware of all of this? These questions flooded my mind for three weeks. I felt immensely betrayed, lost, and hurt. Where do I belong and with whom do I belong? As the three week period came to an end, I found myself in a state of apprehension, anger, and despair. The worst day was yet to come. On May 31st, 2015, I was eternally torn away from my family. The welfare institute director drove me to meet my new single mother in Jinan – the farthest I had traveled despite the location being only an hour and a half from my hometown of Zibo. As I sat in the back of the car and looked out the window to see the fields of corn and wheat slowly fading from view, I felt my familial identity steadily disappearing. To my surprise, my new mother was a different race, a fact that made our interaction seem otherworldly.
At first, I spoke and engaged calmly with her as if we had formed some level of a relationship before. Gradually, however, my anxiety of separation took over. The next week was consumed by adoption paperwork and constant travel between states for official documentation. A sense of loneliness and abandonment engulfed my state of mind. Yet, my adopted mother stood by my side, offering unwavering support each day and through the tears I shed for the past I was leaving behind. More than eight years have passed since my adoption. I have accomplished so much in this new life including earning the rank of Eagle Scout, serving as a lifeguard, leading our debate team, hiking over 100 miles in New Mexico, and ultimately gaining acceptance into a BS/MD program through my high school which provides conditional enrollment to medical school through the University of Houston and Baylor College of Medicine. These large feats were accomplished through the unwavering commitment of my adopted mother’s love who has shared invaluable life perspective and knowledge. I have learned from my adopted mother to always be kind to others regardless of how they treat me or others. I have gained a sense of service as my mother and I volunteer in our community through my Boy Scout troop including my own Eagle Scout project that provided fifty backpacks to foster teens in DePelchin Children’s Center.
I have become a life-long learner as my mother takes me around the world, immersing ourselves in a multitude of cultural tapestry, including my own Chinese culture through weekly eat-outs at our local Chinatown, participation in Chinese festivals, and weekend Chinese lessons. Not only has she enlightened me with her wisdom and her experience of life, my mother has also preserved and cultivated my Chinese heritage, including helping me develop a plan to find my foster family in China in this summer. I learned a profound lesson from my adopted mother: to always share the same connected care I was given to those in need of compassion and empathy. Thus, I am committed to become a Cross-National Limb Difference Specialist and I will continue to serve foster children wherever I live in the world.
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