Adoption is the legal process by which someone becomes the parent of a child who wasn't born to them, giving that child a permanent family and home. When a couple or person adopts a child, they take on all the responsibilities and joys of parenthood, just as if the child had been born into their family. The child becomes their son or daughter in every legal and emotional sense.

People choose adoption for many reasons. Some couples cannot have biological children. Some people want to provide a loving home for a child who needs one. Others already have children but want to grow their family through adoption. Children may be adopted as infants or when they're older, and they might come from the same country or from somewhere far away.

The word can also mean accepting and using something new as your own. A school might adopt a new math curriculum, or a community might adopt a park, agreeing to keep it clean and beautiful. When you adopt a new approach to solving problems, you make it part of your regular toolkit. A family might adopt a tradition from another culture, like celebrating Lunar New Year, and weave it into their own family life.