The international adoption entrance story is an unexplored topic in the adoption literature. The stories that families tell of beginning life with their new children has important implications for the development of an autobiographical narrative of an adopted child. A coherent autobiographical narrative is vital for healthy childhood development. Family therapists interviewed adoptive families about their international adoption stories. In the study we report here, a qualitative narrative analysis revealed 5 salient themes from these interviews: a) loss and choice, b) emotion-based and logic-based processes, c) history and heritage, d) becoming a family and, e) accentuating the positive and eliminating the negative. The authors suggest further research to better understand families' international adoption narratives and the impact on the developmental trajectory of their children. (Contains 1 table.)