In my family of 5 (my parents and my 2 sisters) 3 of us are/were adopted (my mom, one sister and myself). I can say that it is "different" than being a direct biological descendant of your parents, but my parents are my parents, I love them as such and I know that they love me as their child. It's been interesting living in such a family. I don't know that feeling of "genetic continuity" that biologic children know and most likely take for granted. I also recall (the very typical) childhood and adolescent fantasies of "what would life be like if I were with my biologic parent(s)?" One thing that I did notice and find interesting is that each of us in my family who were adopted didn't really express any serious interest in our biologic "roots" until they had children of their own. Both my mom and my sister were curious (at a basic level) but didn't actively seek out information and contact with their biologic parents until they had biologic children of their own. Maybe I am oversimplifying, but I suspect that seeing a child of your own, that is a result of you and someone else's genes mixing, makes one all the more curious as to who/where you came from. I don't have kids, so I've not taken the steps to locate my biologic parents that my mother and sister did after having children of their own. Either way, I think that adoption is cool. It's not for everyone, it's a deeply personal choice, but knowing that you have parents who wanted a child so much that they chose to have you join their family? It's a nice way of looking at it.