Rescued at Birth

Fate has a way of impacting people in different ways. For an adoptee, their fate was determined by the birthmother who surrendered them to adoption. Not one single element of that was ever in the adoptees control. Was the birth mother's decision to disengage the best for the child or the mother? Is there ever any way to determine that? For most adoptees like me, there are critical elements missing in their lives. And no matter how well we were loved and cared for by our adoptive parents, it's not enough to carry on through life without understanding the origins of our physicality and the circumstances that led to our adoption. We need to know where we came from and who created us. We have an insatiable desire to identify with someone of similar genetic traits, and it's not ok to someday leave this planet without knowing how we got here. Do we have other brothers and sisters out there, and if so, do we have similar physical features or common personality traits? If we search and locate our siblings, will we be as compatible as we may have been if we were raised together? Can one form close-knit bonds with a newly discovered sibling they first meet in their adulthood in the same way they could have if they had grown up together? Are we the genetic carrier of some disease that could disable our children? What ethnicity(s) are we comprised of? We want to know what most non-adoptees take for granted and be informed about our genetic familial histories. You don't need to be an adoptee to enjoy this book. In fact, if you love solving mysteries, this book is a must read. It describes in detail the ups and downs during my quest to finally reveal the unanswered questions and secrets that remained hidden from me for most of my life. There were many shocking revelations during my search I never could have imagined. Join me on my journey as I take you through the emotional roller coaster ride of searching for my genetic origins.

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to grow up never physically identifying with anyone, or seeing pictures of immediate family members who bare any resemblance to you? Can you try to imagine what it would be like where everyone in your extended family is connected to each other in a way that you are not? Is blood thicker than water, and are biological familial ties greater than simple relational ties we have with others who are not genetically connected to us? For most of my life I felt I came from nowhere, but I knew I had to come from somewhere. Who was responsible for each of my genetic traits and what conditions led my birthmother to disengage and surrender me to adoption? Was she underaged or raped? Or was it simply that she knew she couldn't financially care for me? What would my life have been like if she chose to keep me? I could never have imagined the impact my quest to identify my biological family would have on me emotionally. Nor could I know just how much frustration I would experience from the many obstacles I faced during the search process. I knew there were puzzle pieces out there somewhere that could be assembled to provide a clearer picture of where I came from. But there was no way to be prepared for the shocking revelations I would discover along the way, and how difficult that assembly process would turn out to be. This story describes my insatiable desire to determine the origins of my physical existence while trying to find as much closure as possible. It's a place to help fellow adoptees identify with others of like kind, and in places, offers detailed genealogical and genetic genealogy techniques used to solve adoption mysteries. But it's also a place for non-adoptees to understand what being adopted feels like. Whether you're adopted or not, if you enjoy following clues and solving mysteries, this book is a must read. Join me on this emotional roller coaster like journey to uncover the identities of my biological origins.