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Media represents most adoptive families as "broken." There's movies/shows that portray the birth-mother as a "drugged out, alcoholic, psychopaths", stepparents as either "abusive or evil", and foster children as "depressed and destructive".
Another representation of adoptive families is in the news, where if there is anything that happened (i.e. a murder, suicide, abuse, theft) it was blamed on the fact that the kid was a "foster child" or the fact that it was "foster parents." Instead of focusing on the issue at hand, they draw attention to the fact that it's because they are an adoptive family that this/that has happened.
Adoption itself is considered to be viewed as kids being "unwanted" and adoption homes as "gloomy."
In general, for several years, media has made a negative portrayal of adoptive families. Only until recently have movies/shows and articles online start to portray a more accurate representation of adoptions and how the family functions.

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Kathi was adopted at birth.

"I was very lucky for that. I didn’t have to experience foster homes. I think I would have a much different view of being adoptive if I had, though. I never bounced around and never felt unwanted or out of place. I left the hospital and went straight home with my parents, like any other regular baby.”

On societal elements that effect adoptive families.

“For me, I was always home. I was always with my family and I was never treated any differently than my siblings, who were weren’t adopted. But my birth parents, I think society was much less forgiving. They were very young, they weren’t married, their families were very ashamed. My birth mother was sent to live with extended family for the duration of her pregnancy…When I found them years later, they were married with a child, so maybe theres some truth to soul mates!”

Positives and Negatives.

“I don’t feel that there were anymore positives or negatives than a normal childhood would have. Being adopted didn’t seem to positively or negatively effect me until I was much older. As an adult who was sick, doctors kept asking for family history… not knowing the illnesses or histories of my biological family was the only real negative I could see.’

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In the United States there are roughly 135,000 children adopted each year. Adoptive Families are one's who take in (adopt) a child or children who are not of blood relation. Though it has been proven otherwise, these children are seen to be "problems" in society. Adopted families actually are pretty normal. They do everything a regular family does. In an article titled "5 Significant Ways My Adoptive Parents Shaped My Life," Tori Lyn, an African American was adopted into a Caucasian household. She states that "Sometimes, the phrase “adoption” has a negative connotation, as if the only way someone could be adopted was because he or she endured some sort of terrible scenario and there was no way out." While Tori agrees that there can be some bad scenarios, she writes to her adoptive family how her experience was great in five key ways:
1.  I'm thankful
2.  I've never felt different.
3.  I really like spending time with you.
4.  I look up to you.
5.  You'll always be my parents.

The phrases above prove how adoption can change one's life. Not everyone gets a good start in this world, but they deserve a chance to make it better, and to me that is what adoption is all about.

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http://lib.dr.iastate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=16287&context=rtd

https://newbeginningsadoptions.org/fighting-adoption-stereotypes/

https://adoption.com/how-the-media-gets-adoption-wrong

https://www.thoughtco.com/adopting-a-child-in-islam-2003804

http://www.americanadoptions.com/adoption/history-of-adoption

http://elitedaily.com/life/culture/to-my-adoptive-parents/1275274/

http://family.findlaw.com/adoption/adopting-a-child-from-a-different-race-ethnicity-or-culture.html

http://www.legislature.mi.gov/(S(nz33jshrmhwfwg4y1abw13cc))/mileg.aspx?page=GetObject&objectname=2015-HB-4189

http://www.legislature.mi.gov/(S(qr40ch4a4rsy4pri13ylrrn4))/mileg.aspx?page=GetObject&objectname=2015-HB-4190

http://www.legislature.mi.gov/(S(qhtvoqfnkznyoc0ekqhd3ken))/mileg.aspx?page=GetObject&objectname=2015-HB-4188

http://www.legis.state.tx.us/tlodocs/85R/billtext/pdf/HB03859I.pdf

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There are two general eras of adoption, adoption before the 20th century and adoption after the first modern law is passed in 1851. Before the 20th century most adoptios were very secretive. Most children were adopted to avoid the label of illegitimate. During this time, there was a huge stigma against unmarried women and their children. Other reasons for adoption often included poverty, illness, or family crisis. Although, not all adoptions were beneficial to the children because  prior to 1851 there was no law that protected children of adoption. In 1851, a law passed in Massachusetts recognized adoption as a legal and social operation based on the children's well-being not the interest of the parents. The Adoption for Children Act was a huge turning point in the history of adoption because it ensured that all judges must find a "proper and fit" household for adoptive children. Today, adoptions are often celebrated as a diverse and unique way to create a family, that offers various paths to do so.

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There are several cultural variations when it comes to adoption. As a whole, I think adoption is quite similar across the board, especially in western cultures. To name a few- adoption in Korea tends to be a rare occurrence, Islamic countries prohibit non-muslim individuals from adopting a muslim child, african families often "give" children to adoptive families seeking ties with other families and in the Arab culture when a child is adopted, he or she typically does not become a "son" or "daughter" but a ward of the caretakers. I think most cultures share a common theme of just wanting to provide a child with a safe, secure and emotionally stable home.

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Matters of religion are often interwoven into and impact the structures of adopted families. Religious-based adoption agencies, or birth parents in the case of an open adoption, may refuse to place a child with a potential family if the faith the birth parent or agency desires the child to be raised under is not the one followed by the parents seeking to adopt. Finding an exact match for a child can be further complicated by the many subsets and branches often found in religious systems. Religious foundations can also be the basis for denying adoption to a single parent or same-sex couple. These factors result in children being kept in foster care longer and the postponement or even outright prevention of the formation of an adopted family. When a family is nonetheless able to adopt a child with a different religious background, it is not uncommon for the parents to struggle with how to handle the spiritual upbringing of their adopted child, or whether there should be one at all. While infants and younger children will inherently not be able to remember the religion they were born into, this still presents families with a dilemma. Adoptive parents may experience concern that their adopted child will lose their own religious history and culture. Older children or teenagers are more likely to have an established faith that differs from their adoptive parents’. The practice of attempting to religiously convert the child is particularly dubious in the latter case and can create significant strife within adopted families when it occurs. As an alternative, younger children may be raised under both their birth family’s religion and their adoptive family’s religion, or may be withheld from faith entirely until they are older and then given the choice of which religion to follow. Adoptive parents of already older children may be encouraged to educate themselves or even partake to varying degrees in their child’s religion to express solidarity, changing the original structure of the family in order foster a closer relationship. The influence that structures of religion have within adopted families creates an inherently different family experience and form within inter-religious adoptions compared to adoptions that occur within the same religion.

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Bills would allow religious objections to adoption

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A package of bills allowing religious objections for adoptions is making its way back through Michigan's House.