Adoption stories, like other narratives, seek to establish a child's linear life course. As such, they attempt to encapsulate a biological beginning, a birth point. This point allows certain attributes which are assumed to be fixed and static, such as sex and ethnicity, to be ascribed to the child and these are often taken to be fundamental to the unfolding narrative. Using qualitative research with families who live in England and have adopted daughters from China, Sarah Richards explores the narratives of belonging with the girls themselves and their parents. These belonging stories are shaped by reification of biological parentage and of birth heritage that reflects the social and political context in which adoption stories are told.
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