Adoption
Adoption: To take into one’s family through legal means and raise as one’s own child.
Many would have you believe that adoption is the next best thing to sliced bread, but there is another side. A side filled with feeling lost, wanting to know your roots, anger at now being able to see something that is considered vital records to others ie my birthcertificate. Not an amended one, but the original.
The first thing people always want to know when I want to search is whether I had a good childhood. I did. I have two great parents who are also interested in knowing my past, my genetic history if you will so this isn’t about replacing my current parents, it’s about adding knowledge to who I am and being able to pass it to my son.
The laws sealing records were designed to protect the newborn from the stigma of illegitamacy. Now those same laws are twisted, redefined or outright misquoted to protect the “privacy” of the birthmom, from the shame that is me.
A few states have open records and they haven’t had a huge increase in abortions, or adoptee/birthmom murders, etc. yet the lies and myths continue to perpetuate.