ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

My greatest thanks go to Emily, Amy, Audrey, Catherine, Claire, Fiona, Elena, Maya D., KayLi, Taylor, Maya, Anya, and Millie for your help with this project. This truly wouldn't have been a 'digital ethnography' without you, and I appreciate all your eager participation and hard work. I recognize that communicating and conducting research online has its downfalls; however, I want to express my gratitude to you all for making the research process so easy. I enjoyed every second of reading through all of your beautiful, insightful responses to my countless questions. I laughed, I cried, and I learned so much, not only about your stories, but myself as well.

In one way or another, each one of you has played an impactful and influencial part of my life, and as my journey as an adoptee. Even though we are in different parts of the world, it brings me great joy to have known all of you, and I'm comforted knowing that there will always be people in this world who share some of the same experiences as I have. This bond that we share, while difficult to understand sometimes, is precious. Sometimes I get selfish and want to keep it all to myself, but I've realized through currating this website that hearing your own experiences and reflecting on my own has helped me heal as a part of my adoptee identity that I didn't even know needed healing. Having the opportunity to transform all of this into my own blend of ethnography, web development, and interactive art is an enormous pleasure; it's a piece of my identity that I will keep close with me foreer.

Finally, thank you to my dearest friend Ian who helped me with all the technical aspects of this project. I appreciate you not only for you design input and help with debugging, but for always supporting me and motivating me to challenge myself, even though I don't feel like that great of a coder most of the time.