My aunt decided to take it into her own hands to preserve our history, so she took a DNA test to find out about her family line and mapped them out into a scrapbook with photos and names. This would be the first of many, up till I was born. I was born into a lot of new traditions, but this scrapbook tradition was an old one that displayed all the people leading up to us. Originally created in Menlo Park, my mom’s city of origin, the scrapbook displayed a lot of our culture. I was recently told how my aunt would make scrapbooks for each person in our family, regardless of blood just by name. All my life I’ve known I was adopted at birth and even got to see my birth mom, but I’ve always considered my real parent as Marcia Amy Hadeler, and I am proud of being her son. Everything as important as the scrapbook connects to one central tradition, Christmas. This time is when my whole family comes together all in the same house to be a family. Blood doesn’t matter, what really matters is that you are family. It has never needed to be by blood relations because a lot of our family is adopted including myself. It shapes my identity to know blood has never mattered to my family all that matters is the way you carry yourself as an individual.

– Kyle Hadeler

Relationship:  Great-grandchild of im/migrant or more Great-grandchild of im/migrant or more