National Adoption Week: Why Adoption Means Everything to Me
This week (October 20-26) marks the start of National Adoption Week - an annual event in the UK that raises awareness and celebrates adoption. As part of National Adoption Week, Matt Taylor-Roberts - founder and CEO of Proud 2 b Parents - reflects on how adoption has shaped his life in ways he could never have imagined…
As the Founder and CEO of Proud 2 b Parents, and as a dad through adoption, National Adoption Week always carries a special meaning for me. It’s not just a moment on the calendar—it’s a chance to reflect on the journey that changed my life forever.
From a very young age, I knew I wanted to be a parent. My mum was adopted as a baby, so I grew up seeing the beauty of adoption—how it could transform lives, create families, and offer love where it was needed most. But I also saw the challenges: how, in the past, family contact and information sharing were handled very differently, and how much the system needed to evolve.
When I met my husband more than 20 years ago, adoption wasn’t even an option for us. Back then, the system worked against LGBT+ individuals and couples. Thankfully, times were changing, and so were the policies. By the time we were ready to think seriously about family, adoption became something we could genuinely consider as part of our lives together.
For me, adoption wasn’t just a route to parenthood—it was always the route. I never saw it as second-best, or as something we had to “settle for.” Adoption was, and is, a gift. It’s how my family came to be, and it’s given me the greatest joy of my life.
“It’s given me the greatest joy of my life.”
When our son came to us, he filled our hearts in a way that words can hardly describe. He was always meant to be ours. There’s a children’s book called I’ve Loved You Since Forever. It captures the feeling that some things are bigger than we can understand—that the universe has a way of bringing the right people together. For us, that meant a little boy who was always destined to be our son, and two grown-ups who were always meant to be his parents.
Even now, at eight years old, when he cuddles up on my lap, he still fits in my arms like a jigsaw piece. It feels as though we were designed for each other—as though all the pieces of our lives were shaped to fit together in this exact way.
That’s why I don’t see myself as an “adopter,” or him as an “adoptee.” Those words don’t define us. We’re simply a family. I am his parent, he is my son, and the love we share is no different from any other. Adoption was the journey that brought us together, but what matters now—and always—are the everyday moments, the unconditional love, and the bond we share.
Adoption, in my eyes, is the greatest journey to becoming a parent. It makes us no less, and no more—it simply makes us a family. And for that, I will always be grateful.
By Matt Taylor-Roberts
Founder and CEO of Proud 2 b Parents
