Happily Adopted

Spyro: So... you mean I— I'm not your real son?
Nina: You are our real son. It's just that you came from somewhere else.

— The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning

Once upon a time, being an adoptee was a raw deal. Either your adoptive or foster parents were Muggles—caring, but utterly, utterly clueless—or they were downright abusive, presumably because you weren't their "blood." If it wasn't adoptive parents, it was step-parents. Either you went Gene Hunting, found your REAL parents, and were loved for the rest of your life, or you moved out, lived on your own, and promptly forgot about them. Even if your adoptive parents were fairly harmless, if you ever found your real family, you forgot all about the people who raised you. Blood's thicker and all that, right?

Or so it used to be.

Because there are some problems in implying that adoptive parents are either bad (in the Abusive Parents variety) or unnecessary/useless (the Gene Hunting variant), many adoptees have a better deal. They're adopted. They know they're adopted — if not right off the bat, then it gets revealed to them that they are. Their reaction is... not to care. Oh, sure — maybe they care at first. Maybe they spend some time wondering about their birth parents, their origins, and where they really come from, but after some thought, they come to one conclusion: No matter who they were born to, they know who cared for them when they were sick, who helped them when they were down, and, most importantly, who loved them. When love's in play, the truth becomes obvious: Those who love them are their real family, blood be damned. Usually, the kid will eventually tell the parent that, throw in a hug and Heartwarming Moments are made as their bond grows stronger.

What happens in cases where the child in question is a Wonder Child, and has celestial or other fantastic parentage? While in older works, the Muggle Foster Parents would frequently be forgotten about, in this trope, the child tends to accept both sets of "parents" as being real. If the child is a Heartwarming Orphan whose "original" parents died, the same thing may also apply. Thus, this has often become a component of the modern Happily Ever After: What will happen to the orphan child protagonist? He/she gets adopted by the adult good guys! Everybody is happy!

As one might expect this trope can overlap heavily with Like a Son to Me. It's not uncommon for the former to lead into the latter as a surrogate child is officially adopted.

Truth in Television (thankfully), but No Real Life Examples, Please!.

Can be an application of Nurture over Nature.

The counterpart trope to Adoption Is Not an Option and Adoption Angst.

Kids Raised by Wolves are often happy adoptees. If the adopted parents aren't even the same species as the adoptee, see Interspecies Adoption. Compare with Babies Ever After. Contrast Raised by Orcs and First Father Wins. See True Companions, which is closely related (by adoption, of course). An Adoption Diss might be used against these characters for Kick the Dog purposes if it's clear to the audience that this trope applies. Also see Orphan's Ordeal for the flipside of the coin.

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Other examples

Comedy

• Gabriel Iglesias often mentions Frankie in his stories. He regularly refers to Frankie's mother as his girlfriend, but always calls Frankie his son. He admits in one show that, technically, Frankie is his stepson. However, Gabriel has said that he doesn't like using the word "stepson" to describe Frankie, as in his eyes, Frankie is his son, no question. Frankie views Gabriel as his father in turn.

Comic Strips

• Dick Tracy: The titular character and Tess Trueheart adopted Junior Tracy after Dick rescued him from Steve the Tramp. This is also featured in the movie Dick Tracy.
• Little Orphan Annie: The titular character. It doesn't hurt that her adoptive father is rich as hell.
• Rusty, the perpetual boy who appears alongside Mark Trail in the comics, is adopted by Mark and his longtime girlfriend Cherry after they finally get married.
• In U.S. Acres, Booker and Sheldon were found and hatched by Orson, who seems content to raise them. Booker even calls Orson "Mom."
• In Popeye, Swee'pea was left on Popeye's doorstep, and Popeye more than eagerly took him in. In a comic in November of 2004, as a way of commemorating National Adoption Month, Popeye officially adopted him.

Fairy Tales

• In "The Devil With the Three Golden Hairs", the miller and his wife find an abandoned baby in a box. The childless couple were happy to adopt the baby, and they "took great care of the foundling, and he grew up in all goodness."
• "The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter": Kaguya genuinely loves her adoptive parents and is sorrowful about having to leave them for the moon.

Films - Animated

• Ark: Amarinth is a member of the Cevean alien species, her race losing the war against the technologically-superior Storrians, and her father being the Storrian commander Jallek who killed two of his men when they tried to massacre a Cevean birthing pod full of children. The then-infant Amarinth unexpectedly awakens, at which point Commander Jallek decides to take her as his adopted daughter, which Amarinth is well aware of most of her life.
• In 101 Dalmatians, Pongo and Perdita end up adopting the 84 orphaned puppies that they helped rescue. Fortunately, their pet humans agree, and the film ends with Roger saying they'll buy a large place in the country so the dogs will have plenty of room.
• In All Dogs Go to Heaven, Anne-Marie and Itchy get adopted by a loving couple in the end.
• Hiro and Tadashi in Big Hero 6 were adopted by their Aunt Cass after their parents died when Hiro was three. It's clear that they adore Aunt Cass and consider her to be their mom.
• Arlo the Alligator Boy was adopted by swamp hermit Edmée of a Louisiana swamp bog for fifteen whole years since being abandoned in the sewers of New York City as a newborn. She cared for him and kept him safe until his fifteenth birthday when she finally told him the truth.
• At the end of The Care Bears Movie, orphan brother and sister Jason and Kim have been adopted legally, while Nicholas has been essentially adopted by the magician he assists. In the end, it turns out that Nicholas then grows up to be the film's narrator, who runs an Orphanage of Love with his wife, who is implied to possibly be Kim.
• In Dinosaur, Aladar is adopted by a family of lemurs when he was a hatchling and they become a very close family.
• In Despicable Me: Gru adopts 3 orphan girls as a plot, but he ends up becoming close to them and loving them as his own. After Dr. Nefario sends them back due to this, Gru later gets the girls back and officially adopts them. This continues in the sequel, where Gru gets married to a woman who gladly treats the girls as her own.
• The trolls adopted Kristoff as a young boy in Frozen. He considers them overbearing, annoying, and intrusive - you know, just like any other family - and he loves them.
• In the Disney Animated Canon version of Hercules, Herc's mortal parents seem to fade from the picture once they tell him he was adopted, and he discovers that he's the son of Zeus. However, one song midway through the movie shows that Hercules is using his newfound fame to take very good care of them, building them an enormous mansion. In the film's conclusion, when Hercules triumphantly returns to Earth, they greet him happily as well. Hercules seems to accept both his earthly and heavenly parents as legit. The Series had an Aesop about this, with Herc's Muggle parents showing up at his school for a Parents' Day Thing rather than his godly ones. This trope is notably absent from original myths, where Herc's mother is just another one of Zeus's conquests after he disguised himself as her husband so he could sleep with her (the movie chose to cut this part for obvious reasons).
• The Jungle Book (1967):
  • The original film starts with an infant Mowgli being adopted by a caring wolf family led by a wolf couple named Raksha and Rama. After several years being taught on how to adapt to the jungle, Mowgli finds himself in the comfort of hanging out with other wolves; even when being told by the wolf leader Rama that Mowgli needs to leave the jungle due to the threat of the man-eating tiger Shere Khan, Rama is reluctant to abandon Mowgli by admitting that the latter is like a son to him. This forces Bagheera and Baloo to take Mowgli to the nearby village, where he would be safe.
  • The 2003 sequel revealed that when Mowgli told his story about his life in the jungle to the villagers, it inspired the village leader (along with his wife Messua and son Ranjan) to adopt Mowgli into their family. Similar to the wolves teaching Mowgli on how to adapt to the jungle, the village leader and Messua try to instill a sense of responsibility for Mowgli to become a valued community member.
• Kung Fu Panda:
  • The original Kung Fu Panda starts out with Po being Obliviously Adopted by Mr. Ping, with their relationship so lovingly strong that the subject of parentage never came up. Kung Fu Panda 2 has Po getting memory flashbacks that drive him to confront Mr. Ping to finally confirm that he is adopted and the panda is feeling rather ambivalent about it. However, by the end of the story, Po comes to realize that despite what he learns about his past, the fact remains he is truly Mr. Ping's son in every meaningful way outside of biology and makes a point of telling him that. Ironically, his biological father is revealed to be alive immediately afterward.
    • In Kung Fu Panda 3, Po meets his biological father Li for the first time and Ping soon becomes jealous of their immediate bond. However, by the end, Po reaffirms that his reunion with Li doesn't mean he loves his adoptive father any less and he is perfectly willing to call both of them "Dad".
  • Tai Lung was treated like a son by Shifu before the former betrayed his foster father's principles in his pursuit of power. Tigress and Shifu had a similar relationship, although Shifu was relatively cold to her because of his falling out with Tai Lung. At least Tigress got to turn that around with Po's help.
• At the end of The Land Before Time, Spike is adopted by Ducky's family, and he couldn't be happier.
• Greenie from Leafie, a Hen into the Wild is this trope through and through. He is a duckling adopted by the titular hen.
• The main character of Meet the Robinsons is an orphaned boy approaching his teenage years who wants to be adopted before he becomes a teenager (because teenagers have much more difficulty getting adopted). This finally happens in the end. It's implied that his roommate might also have this at the end.
• In Mr. Peabody & Sherman, Mr. Peabody adopted Sherman as an infant and loves him as his son; Sherman considers himself the luckiest boy in the world.
• One of the main plots of Puss in Boots: The Last Wish is that Goldilocks wants to use the titular wish to find her biological family, despite being adopted by the three bears. As the film progresses, however, Goldilocks eventually realizes that even though she’s not a bear, the three bears are her family, and, along with Puss and Kitty, decides to give up the wish, and together, they prevent it from getting into the hands of Big Jack Horner.
• Penny was fretting about her chances of adoption in The Rescuers before she was kidnapped by the verbally abusive Madame Medusa. With the help of the titular two mice, she saves the day, and the movie ends with her getting adopted.
• Disney's Tarzan, Kala adopts Tarzan and they have a close relationship. Rosie O'Donnell (who has two adopted children) has said that she took a role in the film because she liked how it put adoption in a positive light. Granted, Tarzan was adopted by gorillas, but he was happy.
• In From Up on Poppy Hill, Shun Kazama is told he was given to his family by his gruff but loving father's commanding officer following the Korean War. The story they know is that the C.O. simply showed up one day and told the couple his wife couldn't care for the baby. He even sent child support until his death. But Shun's father makes it clear that Shun is his son and nothing will change that. Shun only brings up the topic because he fears that the girl he likes might be his biological sister.

Films - Live-Action

• Babe: The titular pig was taken in by Fly the sheepdog.
• Alok in Baghban was old enough to understand that he was an orphan before he was adopted. However, since Raj and Pooja took care of him, he acknowledges them as his true parents and claims that his real parents probably would never give him the love he received from Raj and Pooja.
• In Belle (2013), Dido and Elizabeth are cousins adopted by their aunt and uncle, whom they call "Mama" and "Papa." Notably, while Dido is truly an orphan, Elizabeth's father and stepmother are still alive. She vastly prefers her adoptive family to her father, who disinherits her to favor his child by her stepmother.
• Ben-Hur (1959): Judah, as a galley slave, saves the Roman Consul, Quintus Arrius during a battle. In gratitude, Arrius takes Judah under his wing and years later, formally adopts him and makes him heir to the Arrius Household.
• The Big Wedding: Alejandro was born in Columbia before being adopted by an American family. They deeply love him, and he feels the same about them. He has a loving relationship as well with his biological mother and sister now though.
• The Blind Side ends with the Tuohys adopting Michael Oher, creating a happy ending for all of them (and providing the former page image for this trope). Unfortunately, with the film being Based on a True Story, it turned out it wasn't so straightforward: In 2023, Oher filed a lawsuit alleging that the Tuohys never legally adopted him, instead placing him under a conservatorship which allowed them to conduct financial affairs in his name and earn millions in royalties while Oher received nothing from the film. The case is currently ongoing.
• In Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle, a brief Hand Wave explains that the first film's Bosley (Bill Murray) was adopted many years ago by the mother of the new Bosley (Bernie Mac).
• The Company You Keep: Rebecca was adopted by Henry Osborne, a policeman, and gets along very well with him. What she doesn't know is her biological father is Nick Sloan
• The Dark Crystal:
  • After Jen's clan was slaughtered, the Mystics raised him. He kept happy memories of being raised by the Mystics, such as them giving him a bath as a baby or being educated by the Master.
  • After her clan was captured by the Garthim and slaughtered by the Skeksis, a clan of Podlings adopted and raised Kira. She kept happy memories of being raised by the Podlings just like Jen kept happy memories of being raised by the Mystics.
• Olive's brother Chip in Easy A. The film makes fun of Oblivious Adoption when Chip (who is a black kid in a white family) casually remarks "I'm adopted" in conversation over breakfast and Dill, the dad, exclaims "What! Oh my God, who told you?!" in mock outrage. Chip's mom and big sister are both amused.
• Feast of Love: Harry and Esther adopt Chloe (who's an adult woman, unusually) after she loses Oscar. She bonded already with them, and is very happy at this.
• Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy: Christian Grey is this to the Trevelyan-Grey family. Which triggers Jack Hyde's jealousy as he isn't as lucky as Christian, despite they lived in the same foster home.
• In Four Brothers, the titular brothers were all adopted by their social worker as children because no one else would take them. The plot revolves around how fiercely loyal they are to her, even after she dies.
• Jesse in Free Willy eventually bonds with his foster parents, Glenn and Annie. In the sequel, he refers to Glenn as "my dad."
• At the end of Green Eyes, the protagonist adopts the orphan boy he befriended in Vietnam after trying and failing to find his own son he had with a woman when he was a soldier in The Vietnam War.
• In The Godfather, after being brought in from the streets by Sonny, Tom Hagen is treated just like Don Vito's biological children, who think of him as their sibling, despite the fact that he was never formally adopted. Tom is forever loyal to the Corleones because of this.
• Godzilla’s children across the varying continuities are for the most part adopted orphans of his species, and the Big Guy himself is known for being a highly protective father. Notably, once he’s started raising Junior, the Heisei incarnation of Godzilla becomes a lot less violent towards humanity- likely due to the fact that Junior was rescued and Raised by Humans.
• In Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, for all his many faults and Jerkass qualities, Peter ends up having to admit Yondu was much more of a father to him than Ego.
  Yondu: He may have been your father, boy, but he wasn't your daddy.
• In the Korean film Harmony it is implied that the young boy of Hong Jeong-hye has become this.
• Hugo:
  • Hugo is implied to be this at the end by Georges Méliès. Averted at the beginning when his drunken uncle takes him in after his father's death, forcing him to do all the work at the train station and refusing him to go to school.
  • Also played straight with Isabelle, adopted by her godfather Papa Georges.
• In The Jerk, Navin Johnson grew up part of a poor black family. While he does strike out on his own upon learning that he was adopted ("You mean I'm going to stay this color?") it's solely out of a desire to find his place in the world, and he stays in contact with his family and sends them money when he starts making it. When it all blows up in his face, they take him back in, and it ends with him and his wife dancing and playing music with the family.
• Kin (2018): Elijah was adopted into a white family when he was a little kid. He is clearly loved by his adopted father and brother, while obviously loving them in turn.
• Knock at the Cabin: Eric and Andrew are both attentive, loving fathers to their adopted daughter, Wen. She in turn loves them back, calling them "daddy Eric and daddy Andrew".
• Kuntilanak: Donna is the adoptive parent of the kids in the movie, and clearly loves them dearly. They like living with her, too.
• The 2012 film adaptation of the long-running Les Misérables musical plays this trope completely straight, with Hugh Jackman portraying Jean Valjean as a completely caring and devoted father to his adopted child Cosette. Many viewers enjoyed the new song included in the film, a tune called "Suddenly" about the Cosette-Valjean relationship.
• In a Russian adaptation of A Little Princess, Sara ends up adopted by her father's companion after her father's death, which is Truer to the Text.
• Me, Myself & Irene: Charlie's sons, despite being the children of his ex-wife's affair, still love him and help him through the film. It certainly helps that Charlie kept them after the ex-wife and her affair left town.
• Min of Min and Bill loves her Doorstop Baby Nancy, but both the Department of Child Disservices and Nancy's horrible monster of a bio mom threaten the relationship.
• Money Train reunites the "salt and pepper" team of Woody Harrelson and Wesley Snipes as Charlie and John, cops who are foster brothers. Charlie was adopted by John's family at a young age and as a result, always looked up to John. He also felt inadequate next to John, but that was his own issue and not directly the result of his upbringing.
• By the end of Moonrise Kingdom, Sam seems to be this, having been adopted by Captain Sharp.
• Brianna by the end of Mystery Team.
• At the end of Not Cinderella's Type, Indy is adopted by her boyfriend's father, a school psychologist, who also helps her leave her abusive aunt and uncle and get back the money they stole from her.
• In Pacific Rim, Mako Mori was taken in by Stacker Pentecost after her family was killed in a Kaiju attack. While it's implied that she was not formally adopted due to her referring to him as "Marshall" and "sensei," it's clear she considers him to be a father. Pacific Rim: Uprising also shows that she and Pentecost's biological son Jake truly care for each other despite some tension over his irresponsible and illegal actions.
• In Pete's Dragon (1977), Pete ends up living happily with Nora and her newly returned love Paul. He's so happy he no longer needs Elliot.
• At the end of Pollyanna, Pollyanna's orphan friend has been adopted by the local grump.
• In the 2010 film Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, the main character Dastan was adopted by the King of Persia, who was impressed by the young boy's skill and courage as he saved another boy from mutilation. Dastan grows up very aware of the circumstances of his birth, but is utterly devoted to his adopted father, brothers, and uncle.
• Despite being the product of Apollo Creed's affair with another woman, his widow, Mary Ann, takes in his son Adonis and raises him as her own after his birth mother dies. At the climax of Creed she sends him a pair of Stars-and-Stripes patterned shorts, styled after the pair his father wore, to wear at his big match with the Creed name on the front and his birth mother's surname on the back. The present comes with a note from Mary Ann signed "Ma".
• In Scanner Cop, Samuel Staziak has a very good bond with his adoptive parents, who took him in after his biological father (a deranged scanner) died. His new father is also his boss at the LAPD. They don't appear in the next film.
• In Shara, Yu's mother reveals to her that she's actually her aunt, and adopted her as a baby from her sister-in-law. Yu takes it in stride and keeps thinking of her aunt as her real mother.
• SHAZAM!: When Billy Batson is taken in by foster parents Victor and Rosa Vasquez, they already have five happily adopted foster kids. Billy at first isn't interested in having a meaningful relationship with the family, but eventually defrosts, and he becomes this as well by the end of the film.
• Snow Dogs: Ted Brooks learns of his adoption well into adulthood after receiving a summons notifying him of his biological mother's death. Even after meeting his biological father and ultimately choosing to stay in Alaska, he never loses his love for his adoptive mother.
• In The Smurfs live-action film series, Smurfette after her transformation into a real Smurf is adopted by Papa Smurf as his stepdaughter.
• Somebody I Used to Know: Sean was adopted by Barry and Jojo, and though he loves them (to the point of building his home on the same lot as theirs), not knowing his birth parents is still a touchy subject and he can't understand why Cassidy wouldn't want her family at their wedding.
• Sorceress: The twins were raised by a loving peasant foster father to whom their birth mother entrusted them with.
• In Splitting Heirs, Eric Idle is the lost son of a British noble family who was switched at birth. He has been brought up by an Asian family who sees nothing odd in their paler-skinned son Tomi Patel speaking with a cut-glass upper-class British accent, wearing pinstripe suits, and going to work as a stockbroker every morning - despite being brought up Asian...
• In Star Wars, Leia Organa (a Skywalker and Naberrie-Amidala by birth) fits into this trope quite nicely, until, well... yeah.
  • The Expanded Universe suggests that Luke was this as well with his aunt and uncle, despite the conflicts he had with the latter during the movie.
• The eponymous mouse in Stuart Little was adopted by the human Little family. Despite the warnings of the adoption agency and some early struggles with George and Snowbell, Stuart ultimately fits in very well with the Littles. He's ecstatic when he finds out that his supposed real parents aren't actually family.
• Then She Found Me is a less than idealistic portrayal of this trope, with Helen Hunt's adopted mother being a Jewish Mother with all the accompanying difficulties - but she is nonetheless very much the heroine's mother, and is mourned accordingly when she dies early in the movie. While Bette Midler as the biological parent then shows up, it's pointed out that she wasn't the heroine's mother when being so required work (as Helen says when she calls her out, she was sick a lot as a child). Meanwhile, the heroine's brother (their mother's biological son) is the only person with whom she remains on speaking terms throughout the whole movie. And though she spends the whole movie trying to have a baby and ignoring all suggestions of adopting a Chinese orphan, the final shot is of her being a loving mother to a little Chinese girl.
• Kim from Wake of Death, after being rescued from a Human Trafficking vessel belonging to a Chinese triad, ends up being adopted by the Archer family which she grows to embrace by the end of the film. The Archer family wife Cynthia is this trope herself, being an orphan and a white girl adopted by a Chinese-American family - which is why she felt obliged to provide a home for this orphaned Chinese girl she found.
• An especially moving example is revealed toward the end of Where the Heart Is when Lexie marries Ernie. She explains to Novalee that Ernie's daughter Carol Ann is not his daughter - she's the child of his ex-wife, with whom he also has a son. His wife ran off and left him with both kids, so he raised them as though they were both his own; when the ex realized that Ernie wanted custody of her daughter, she demanded that he turn over his valuable antique sports car in exchange. As Lexie says, "He traded his car for her daughter."
• Wolves: Cayden at the beginning, although he doesn't know he is adopted. The emergence of his Wolf form changes that in the most horrific way.
• Young Hearts: Harper and Adam were both adopted from India by a very nice white couple in the US who are loving parents to them.
• At the end of Face/Off, Sean Archer adopts Castor Troy's son.
• A Waltons Thanksgiving ends with the titular family adopting young Red, whose birth name is actually Ben - he is this universe's version of Ben Walton from the original series.

Literature

• Animal Ark: Mandy Hope lost her biological parents in a car crash when she was a baby. She doesn't have any memory of them. She regards her adoptive parents, the Hopes, as the best parents in the world, and is proud to have such great veterinarians as her mum and dad. Her being an adoptee is often brought up whenever she deals with orphaned or adopted baby animals.
• A Hole in the Fence: When the main character and his sister meet their mother, and Saura asks how they were treated by their respective adoptive families, Grisón states Antoine and Flammèche were good adoptive parents, and Prune also insists that Marguerite Rousselot took care well of her.
• Emergence: Candy's birth parents died in a car accident when she was a baby. The only less-than-positive thing she ever says about either adoptive parent is expressing some frustration that Dad is supposedly limiting her access to books and other educational materials he thinks are age-inappropriate. He's indulging in reverse psychology to motivate her to pursue such items. Even that is affectionate in tone.
• In The Orphan Train Adventures, this appears to be the case with all the Kelly children other than Mike. Mike appears to be after being relocated away from the Friedrich family. This trope is certainly the case with Danny, who prefers to stay with Alfred Swenson to moving to his biological mother and her new husband along with his sister Peg.

Music

• Elvie Shane's song "My Boy" is about a man's relationship with his stepson. To them, it doesn't matter if they're related or not:
  He ain't my blood, ain't got my name
  But if he did, I'd feel the same
  I wasn't there for his first steps
  But I ain't missed a ball game yet
  And that ain't ever gonna change
  I could never walk away.
  Yeah he's my son and that's my choice
  He ain't my blood but he's my boy.

Mythology and Religion

• The Bible: In the Book of Esther, Esther's elder cousin Mordecai adopts her as his daughter after her parents have died.
• In Classical Mythology: Aphrodite, goddess of beauty, was born of Uranus, the god of sky, when his castrated privates hit the sea, and the foam coalesced as Aphrodite. Zeus takes her in as one of the Olympians, and she even becomes one of the twelve main Greek Gods, with her never qualified as anything but Zeus's daughter. It is a little more ambiguous if Zeus's wife, Hera, is adoptive mother or stepmother and the two had their fights from time to time... but Hera tends to get into fights with her biological family too, so that likely only reinforces Aphrodite as a daughter figure.

Podcasts

• The Adventure Zone: Graduation:
  • Gordy was abandoned as a small child because his parents feared his necromantic powers, but he was found and adopted by some kind people who weren't afraid of him, but instead took care of him as they travelled the world and taught him all they knew about necromancy. He clearly considers them to be his real parents, and as a result of their care, he is now the Lich King.
  • Gordy decided to pay it forward and wound up adopting Rainer when she was a young girl. Just as his parents did for him, he taught her everything he knows and completely adores her. Whether Rainer was abandoned or orphaned has yet to be revealed, but it doesn't seem to matter to her, as Gordy gives her everything she needs.
• Winsler Wallaby of Trials & Trebuchets is a gnome who was found and raised by a dwarven couple as their own on their farm in the Mud Flats, and Winsler loves them dearly, hoping to use the magic he learns at Wildcliff to help out on the family farm.

Poetry

• "Not flesh of my flesh" by Fleur Conkling Heyliger
  Not flesh of my flesh
  Nor bone of my bone,
  But still miraculously my own.
  Never forget for a single minute,
  You didn't grow under my heart,
  But in it.
  

Roleplay

• In Covered In Blood And Surrounded By Spirits, Aimi is the only biological child of the Renko family. Akuma and Miyako are both adopted, and they both couldn't be happier.
• Dawn of a New Age: Oldport Blues:
  • Josephine was taken in by a kindly couple after being raised by an abusive aunt. They've been helping her to recover from her unhealthy paranoia that's come about as a result of her abuse.
  • As a newborn, Mirielle was left on the doorstop of a bakery. She was taken in by its owners, who have been happily raising her since.
  • Simon was adopted and moved over to the States when he was a child. While he does have a lot of hang-ups, his relationship with his parents is shown to be strong and caring.
• Odette the Swanna and Shahinne the Starly in We Are All Pokémon Trainers. Odette is adopted by a Mienshao and a Liepard, both female, of all things. Shahinne is being raised by a Fearow and a Honchkrow, who get romantically involved together precisely because she needed a maternal figure.

Stand-Up Comedy

• Comedian D.L. Hughley had a bit where he gave props to his adoptive father and makes a point of calling the man "Dad". Hughley adds that he has no desire to know his biological father, saying that whoever the guy was, he threw away a winning lottery ticket.
• Comic Joe DeRosa is likewise quite happy with his adoptive parents, and is annoyed by the suggestion that whoever gave him up is his "real" family:
  "I hear it constantly: 'Joe, you're adopted, oh my God. Did you ever look for your real parents? Did ya ever do that?' Uh, no; I pretty much took the hint, actually."

Visual Novels

• Ace Attorney:
  • Trucy Wright, the adopted daughter of Phoenix Wright, adores her father. She even calls him "Daddy" immediately after Phoenix gives her the option to call him Nick or Daddy if she wants. However, Trucy loves both her adopted and real fathers to the same extent and was, in fact, extremely sad when she figured out that her biological father had been murdered. She merely put on a brave smile so as to not worry either Apollo or her adopted father, Phoenix. Too bad it doesn't work, as Phoenix already has prior experience with the Stepford Smiler trope.
  • From Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Justice For All there's the brothers Acro and the comatose Bat, adopted by the circus ringmaster Russell Berry. This pushes the events of the "Big Top" case into serious Tear Jerker territory, as Russell is the accidental victim of Acro's murder attempt.
  • Apollo's adoptive father, Dhurke Sahdmadhi, has saved his life several times and is someone who he loves as though he were family.
  • From Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth 2, child prodigy actor John Marsh is the secret love child between one Amy Marsh and the president of Zheng Fa, Di-Jun Huang. Amy passed away 5 years before the events of the game, with John knowing full well who she is, whereas he never knew who his father actually was, making it a life goal of his to find out who. After Amy passed away, her cousin, Judge Justine Courtney, adopts John as her own son, and the two have a very loving parent-child relationship, with John being perfectly accepting of referring to Courtney as his Mom, even knowing that Amy Marsh is his biological mother.
  • While they aren't EXACTLY adopted father and son one could say this was the relationship between Sirhan Dogen and Simon Keyes as Dogen is the only one Simon trusts with his life as Dogen saved his life as a 12-year-old child, and both serve as each other's Morality Pet.
• Misuzu in Air is an interesting case. Her aunt Haruko acts as her adopted mother, but distances herself from her for fear Misuzu will be taken away; but as the series continues, they grow very close.
• Hayama Mizuki from ef - a fairy tale of the two. was adopted as a Replacement Goldfish for her parents' actual daughter, who drowned as a little girl. Mizuki herself underwent several traumatic experiences previously. Despite all this, she adores her parents, they adore her, and Mizuki says late into the story that she wasn't born to her real parents—she only came to be with them later.
• Shirou Emiya, the main character of Fate/stay night, was adopted by the magus Kiritsugu after his parents (and other immediate family members) died in a fire. After Kiritsugu also died, Shirou remembers the six years they spent together as the happiest time in his life.
• Chizuru in Hakuouki, somewhat. It's subverted in most routes, where Kodo reveals that he only took her in and raised her because she was the heir to the Yukimura clan and would be useful for repopulating it, but played straight in Hijikata and Okita's good routes, where he sacrifices himself to save her.
• Hatoful Boyfriend: Hatoful House was an orphanage for birds orphaned specifically by war. The older birds worked, most of the younger birds went to school, and it was explicitly a family. Nageki, at least, was happy there.
• In Reflections on the River, Prince Shun was adopted into the royal family from a neighbouring kingdom and seems happy enough with his situation despite having been demoted to Spare to the Throne. However, it's somewhat illusory, and some paths through the game end with him deciding to leave. The king and queen may have given him a life of luxury, but they didn't do it for his sake, and expect unquestioning obedience in return for their "charity". If Shun tells them that they wronged the protagonist, they call it treason.
• Quark in Virtue's Last Reward. Tenmyouji found him abandoned as an infant during a thunderstorm, and although he initially tried to find a better home for the baby, he ended up raising the child as his own. The two have a deeply loving relationship, and in the game's Golden Ending, it's strongly implied that Tenmyouji, AKA Junpei, doesn't want the Bad Future to change because he loves his adoptive grandson.
• In Dream Daddy, Amanda can become this if the player so chooses.
• Both the main protagonists, Hitomi and Kyosuke, are this in the Parascientific Escape series. Hitomi starts the first game going Gene Hunting, but not because she dislikes her family—in fact, she's still deeply traumatized by her adoptive father's death because of how much she loves her family. Similarly, Kyosuke took after his adoptive dad in becoming a detective. However, Ritsu and Tsukiko's adoptive family is a bit of an aversion, as their adoptive parent is a Manipulative Bastard.

Web Animation

• A Day With Bowser Jr: In Two Koopas for a throne (part 3), all of the Koopalings are the sons of Morton Koopa Sr. Bowser still loves them as his children though.
• Ered Miller from Camp Camp is the adopted daughter of two gay FBI agents, and doesn't seem the least bit ashamed of it. In fact, she embraces it.
• Etra chan saw it!:
  • Tsutsuji gets adopted by her uncle Kuroki and aunt Karin after they find out that she was neglected by the family of Hiiragi, her other uncle. After the couple adopted Tsutsuji, they're met with criticisms and false rumors, despite this, they still care about her. When Hiiragi and his wife Azami mock Tsutsuji for being adopted after Karin gave birth to her child, Karin responds by kicking the couple out by throwing several things at them, which affirms Karin and Kuroki's love for Tsutsuji.
  • Tachibana's father Katsura re-married Yuri, who also brought her daughter Yuzuriha with her into their house. However, Katsura passed away in his sleep, leaving Yuri to raise both Yuzuriha and Tachibana, adopting him into her family. Four years later, Yuri re-married Tokusa who brought his son Kuroki with him. Yuzuriha and Kuroki adapted to the new family quickly, however, Tachibana didn't feel the same way due to the fact that he was not blood-related to either of them. Despite this, the family keeps treating Tachibana like their own and Tokusa also promises to cover Tachibana's tuition fees to study at the Etra Institute of Technology University so he could do what Katsura couldn't.
  • Akane was given a job and a place to stay by Kuroki and his parents at his guest house after escaping from her physically abusive father, Tachibana. After the summer season is over, Akane decides to quit her job and leave the house, though Kuroki encourages her to stay whenever she likes. However, Tachibana manages to find them, and Kuroki lets himself be beaten up by Tachibana to save Akane from him. Fortunately, a police officer, Karin, caught Tachibana beating Kuroki, with her father Akamatsu recording the beating, causing Tachibana to be arrested for assault. After the incident, Akane decides to stay at Kuroki's guest house, he also adopts her as his daughter, and she is now married to Katsura, and they have a son together.
  • Tachibana is adopted by Tokusa after Akane left them both. After Tokusa died protecting him from a speeding car, Kuroki and Yuzuriha adopt him. Things go well until they have a child of their own. Azami then remarks about Tachibana not being their own son and therefore worthless. After the boy overheard this, things start to go downhill from there. Fortunately, Kuroki and Tachibana are able to reconcile with each other a few years later.
  • Akane kidnapped Karin from her biological parents, Hiiragi and Yuzuriha, to get back at Hiiragi for cheating on her with Yuzuriha. Even though that Karin is not blood-related to her, she still raises and treats her like her own daughter, and Karin also wants to stay with her after knowing the truth about her biological mother.
  • Akamatsu was adopted by Tachibana and Karin after his mother Tsutsuji died giving birth to him, and his father Hiiragi was paralyzed in a truck accident, rendering him unable to care for Akamatsu. He only learns this after Tachibana died from cancer and he grew to dislike Hiiragi for what he perceived to be an insensitive joke when Tachibana lost his arm a few years prior. They make amends when Akamatsu learns the truth, but he still regards Tachibana and Karin as his parents.
• MoniRobo: Saori was adopted by the Nogawa couple who loved her and treated like a real daughter. However, their love for her vanished when their biological son Takuya was born.

Webcomics

• Archipelago:
  • Credenza, ever since she washed ashore as a traumatized ten-year-old and got taken in by the Burilla siblings. They're willing to sail across the Archipelago to find her when she vanishes.
  • Clair's birth parents are dead and lost at sea as it later turns out, also, in a way, dead , but Cassie is her surrogate mother and they have a very loving relationship. After Clair's father's disappearance gets solved, the adoption is treated as official.
• Several episodes in Batman: Wayne Family Adventures have moments that show that all of the Bat kids are this, as most of them came out of bad situations or lost their parents (or both) and Bruce gave them a chance to have a loving family and (sort of) normal life. Even the more abrasive family members like Jason and Damian show how much they truly appreciate what Bruce has done for them.
• Myan from Cat Nine. Calling her happy is an understatement as she seems to genuinely love her new dad.
• Lampshaded in Dan and Mab's Furry Adventures, with Alexis' relationship with Destania.
• Demonseed Redux: Chico and Dee are treated as family by Hal and Mama Baga respectively and they trust them the most.
• Cole is the happily adopted brother of Nate in Doodle Diaries.
• Dragon Sanctuary: Dean's not a Conin, but he considers Ellen and Meale his mother and sister all the same. Even after he’s brought into the royal court, he reaffirms to Meale that they're not his real family, just more family.
• El Goonish Shive: Elliot's parents don't bat an eye when he brings home an Opposite-Sex Clone of himself. They're just ticked he didn't tell them where he was.
  • Similarly, Grace takes to the Verres household like a fish to water, though her exact status in the family is a bit ambiguous as to whether it's official adoption (she's dating their son, Tedd), but since she turns 18 during the course of the story it may be a moot point.
  • It's also indicated that adopted siblings Rhea and Diane are also this, and despite sniping at each other their concern for each other is genuine.
  • Noah, the androgynous seyunolu whose parents were killed by Damien, was taken in by Adrian Raven. While their exact relationship is unclear at first and seems a bit distant, it soon becomes clear that they both consider each other family and care for one another deeply.
• Forestdale has Jake Noel, a deer/wolf hybrid who was adopted into a family of chameleons at the ripe old age of eight. Despite some of the cultural differences between reptiles and mammals that exist in the world of Forestdale, Jake has adjusted quite well to his new family and loves them like they were his own flesh and blood. It helps that the Noel family is a MASSIVE step up from his biological parents.
• Freefall has the Bowman's Wolves, who were all adopted by human families. Florence's family treats her as a human child, for the most part. The fact that she's legally property is little more than a formality. Her owner considers her his little sister and buys and sells things for her.
• Sharon of General Protection Fault was adopted by an interracial couple.
• Agatha Clay in Girl Genius often speaks of Adam and Lilith Clay as her mother and father, though she's always known herself to be adopted. They make it clear that they love her, and she won't let anyone insult them.
• Depending on how you look at it, artificial creature Molly of The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob! doesn't have any real parents (though Jean sort of qualifies, because they share some genetic material). Anyway, Bob raised her, and she's currently living with Jean, and she loves them both very much.
• Cute Monster Girl Gronk was adopted by human woman Dale, and very much prefers the human side of life.
• In Kevin & Kell, Lindesfarne was adopted by Kevin during his first marriage with Angelique (who wanted a prickly species as an excuse to keep her at arm's length) and while she has her own issues with Angelique neglecting her during her childhood, she loves her father and stepmother. Corrie was also briefly adopted by the Canids, but while she tired of their obsessive routines, her clone Dolly, who was used to living a structured life from being in the lab, appreciated what her adoptive family had to offer.
  • Dolly's rather special because she's Happily Adopted... twice. After she started rapidly aging, she pretended to be Corrie's birth mother so the Canids wouldn't realize something was wrong. Then a time machine accident caused Dolly to regress to a baby. She conspired with Corrie to present herself as a Doorstop Baby named Mary, whom the Canids promptly adopted.
• Eva of Metal Phone Mouse.
• In My Daughter Is A Zombie, the fact that Su-ah is adopted isn't even revealed until the return of her deadbeat biological father. After the flashback of how Jeonghwan raised Su-ah after his sister's death, he asserts that he is Su-ah's real father because he birthed her through his heart. It's later implied that Su-ah knew she was adopted because her parents' blood types don't match up with hers, but she didn't think any differently after finding that out.
• Ozy from Ozy and Millie is a fox raised by a dragon. He's quite happy with his dad, even if he is a bit... odd. And, at the very end of the strip, his dad and Millie's mom get married, giving him an adoptive-but-loving mother as well. He's been told of his biological parents, but as he reminded Millie once, he knows who his real father is. Even if he occasionally sits on him, or sets him on fire, or makes him scrub the moat as a chore.
• Pet Foolery: One strip retells the story of The Ugly Duckling as it would have been if the cygnet had ended up in a crocodile nest rather than a duck nest. She still feels awful, this time because she can't hunt like her adoptive family, but she's very happy with them other than that. One of her brothers reassures her after a failed attempt to drown a wildebeest and brings her some meat from their most recent catch.
• In A Petty Nuzlocke Challenge, after Spuds the Venusaur and Barb the Nidoqueen discuss Barb's sterility, a Pokemon Breeder in the Sevii Islands offers them a Togepi egg to raise. When it hatches, Spuds Jr is already a Togetic, apparently just that happy with his new parents and eager to be a Badass Family.
• Arthur in Arthur, King of Time and Space is fostered rather than adopted by Ector, even in the contemporary arc, but it's definitely a happy family, with even Kay being a Jerk with a Heart of Gold. When his worst fear is manifested in the space arc as being that he's really Ector's bastard and condemned to life as Kay's squire, his reaction is "Well, it could be worse".
• This is actually the whole plot behind Selkie. It's even called A Tale Of Adoption by the author.
• Enel of The Silver Eye is quite happily adopted by Marcus, and although Apen wasn't raised by the Alvarados, they still consider him to be a part of their family.
• In Slightly Damned, Darius assumed the role of father for orphaned demons Iratu, Sakido and Buwaro. When Buwaro found out the lengths Darius went to in order to protect them, he proudly assumed Darius's last name, something Demons don't normally have.
  • A similar connection can be made for Rhea assuming the role of "big sister" to Buwaro, something she promised Sakido she would do when they escaped Hell.
• An odd version of this appears in Something*Positive. The strip's resident ditz Monette is adopted by Davan's parents, Fred and Faye, once they realize that her biological parents are complete jerks. The oddity of the arrangement is that they adopt Monette when she's in her twenties. But it works out surprisingly well.
  • And now, Aubrey and Jason have adopted Pamela Joycelyn ("Pamjee") and she already feels more kin to her adoptive parents than most could have hoped for.
  • Donna's son Rory was briefly thought to be Davan's biological child but turned out not to be. Since his bio dad is apparently quite a shit, though, Davan's stepped into a paternal role to the point that Rory calls him Dad.
• Terinu has his adoptive mother Melika, who, though a vulpine, loves her ferin "cubling" deeply. Word of God has said that Teri's memory of their brief time together as a family has kept him from being completely warped by Space Pirate Mavra Chan's Training from Hell.
• A complicated version in Yet Another Fantasy Gamer Comic: Glon Smitharm was raised by the local smith and wasn't exactly happy, being considered ugly and half-human. It's later revealed he's the son of Baron Greyfort and Mrs. Bloodhand, while the Baron's son Lucas is actually the smith's son. They trade places, but neither is particularly happy (Lucas having been one of Glon's tormentors and showing no inclination towards smithing). Eventually Glon goes to the Black Mountain, having embraced his half-orc nature and Lucas becomes the baron after their biological/adoptive father's death, and after a lot of Character Development become true Bash Brothers.
• In Yokoka's Quest, the barrier around Betel's Forest, among other things, makes people believe that Betelgeuse is their mother, and in turn that everyone else is their sibling. Combined with Easy Amnesia, most inhabitants end up living there with their new family in blissful ignorance.

Web Original

• Flotsam the pegasus from Fallout Is Dragons is very happy with her adopted family. Aurelia is also an example, although she does grow weary of her adopted family's antics on occasion.
• Protectors of the Plot Continuum:
  • Most kids picked up by them are far happier in the Nursery or with whichever agents become their parents than they were with their original families, which were often Suvians or other fic characters. Suvians usually do not make good parents; among other things, they've been known to cause their own children to be killed or molested just for attention.
  • Agent Momoka Shigisawa has no living relatives, her mother died in childbirth and her father passed away from illness later. She thus lives with the wealthy Hazama family through her high school years before the start of her PPC career, which is why she's painfully loyal and subservient to agent Kaguya Hazama.^note This plot is referenced from the novel The Golden Demon, from which their last names derived. In the novel, the orphan Kan'ichi Hazama is also happily adopted by the well-off Shigisawa family, whose beautiful daughter Miya he falls in love with.
• Sandwich Stoutaxe, a Drow raised among Dwarves. Despite rough beginnings (Dad wished she was a sandwich instead of a baby, she tried to stab him in his sleep as an infant) and the difficulties a Drow Elf would face living among Dwarves (such as doors that are built for people half her height), she does quite well. She considers herself a member of the Stoutaxe clan first and an Elf second. Given what Drow society is like, she is definitely better off.
• Played with in The Book of Stories OCT - while Aella loved her foster family, she'd still like to know about her real parents.

Web Video

• Gorgug Thistlespring from Dimension 20 (specifically the Fantasy High campaign), is a half-orc raised by gnomes; Wilma and Digby. While he does have a subplot in the first campaign of looking for and eventually finding his biological father, it never diminishes his relationship with his adoptive parents and he readily acknowledges them as his mom and dad. Wilma and Digby, for their part, adore Gorgug and are revealed to have cast out their families who suggested adopting Gorgug was a mistake.

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