[adoptionblessings]

Those persons touched by adoption in the closed adoption era- often seek out birth relatives later in life. I am an adult adoptee who reunited with my 3 birth sisters when I was in my mid-thirties. I was raised in a loving Christian family and always knew I was adopted. When in my 30's alot of buried questions about my genetic, health and ethnic history surfaced. Because little data was gathered in the 50's in adoption, I like many other adoptees did not have much to go on. So I embarked on an adoption search which took 2 and 1/2 years. It was a personal growth journey where I grew by leaps and bounds emotionally and spiritually. My birth parents were deceased when I "found" my 3 birth sisters. And my sisters were amazed for they had been told I died at birth when I did not come home with my birth mother from the hospital. Our reunion happened in the town I was born in Milwaukee Wisc , and our first reunion was at an area motel. It was exciting and lifechanging to meet biological relatives for the first time. They welcomed me with open arms and we shared several years of face to face get-togethers.Judy, the sister I grew closest to died 3 years after we met suddenly of late diagnosed colon cancer. It was difficult to say "goodbye" to her, but I embrace the years we were able to share together. I still keep in touch with my other sisters but mostly through cards and letters.
Many adoption agencies initiate searches for birth relatives- and those contacted have the choice to be open to contact or not.
Hope others will share their adoption reunion stories here.
Blessings, Jody Moreen Reunited adoptee

[scrapbookguru]

Mine is a long story, but I'd be happy to share it eventually. Perhaps in the adoption blog.

However, I too reunited with my biological family. My birth mother, a sister and two brothers. I'm so lucky!

It was a beautiful reunion! I am very blessed with two loving families and I fully intend to share the story.
Thank you for sharing yours!

[MJ7]

We've had a few kind of reunions. First when we found baby 5 of 7 (my son is #6). He was almost 4 at the time and my son almost 3. His amom and I were just in awe looking at each other's sons for resemblences.

Second was meeting the maternal-maternal great grandparents of the same son. I just got a wealth of information from them about my son's genetic hisotry and herritage. I learned a lot about his bmom too.

Third was meeting baby 7. We had decided we were not in a position to take him in so mom of baby 2,3 &4 will adopt him. I got to take video footage for her. The foster mom has been soooo gracious letting us visit him and take pictures.

The big reunion is SUPPOSED to happen in a month or two. It will be when the amom of 2, 3, and 4 takes home baby 7. We're hoping mom of #5 will come down here and we know baby 1 (who is 16) will be here with her amom. We HOPE to see ALL 7 kids together for the first time and we're hoping the great grandparents will be there too! I have seen pictures of all the kids. It's amazing. Bparents are not safe and will not be invited.

My youngest son, we met his half brother and the mother of the 1/2 bro. (boys are related through bdad). That was neat. He's a sweet kid. We've known bgma and aunts (paternal) because they were involved in the case and we have mediation with gma. The meeting we had with our youngest's bmom was NOT GOOD. She tried to take him from a visit. Since she's had another baby that's in custody. I don't know if we'll ever see him . We just couldn't take one baby over the other and certainly couldn't handle "twin" boys in addition to our 2 boys now.

[adoptionblessings]

Hi Nicole- thanks for posting on this thread and hope to read your reunion story and MJ7, what an amazing story of your son's siblings and relatives and your upcoming reunion with all 7 children together- WOW! Thanks for posting!Blessings in your reunion journey and hope more people will post theirs.
Jody

See my Adoption Blog
Adoptees Cafeevotions for Adopted Persons
www.adopteescafe.blogspot.com

[adoptionblessings]

Hi Nicole- thanks for posting on this thread and hope to read your reunion story and MJ7, what an amazing story of your son's siblings and relatives and your upcoming reunion with all 7 children together- WOW! Thanks for posting!Blessings in your reunion journey and hope more people will post theirs.
Jody

See my Adoption Blog
Adoptees Cafe: Devotions for Adopted Persons
www.adopteescafe.blogspot.com

[insightstyle]

http://www.findmybiologicalparents.com
Finding biological parents | Connect | Support Groups

[swt1899]

This is a great post... I'm 29 and was adopted at 11 days old from Edna Gladney in Ft Worth, TX. My mom was 17 when she had me. I too grew up with wonderful parents and always knew where I had come from. Later in life I wondered about searching for my birthmom. The agency had a policy that I had to wait till I was 21 to register to find her. Well, a year later I got a letter from the agency and was informed that my birthmom had just registered too. We wrote through the agency many times. Both parties had to go through a briefing before being reunited. I went to another adoption agency for a 1 hour session with a counselor. They asked all kinds of questions... some basic why questions and then some very prying and interigating questions...
After that we finally arranged to meet in my town. They flew in and we were reunited at the airport gate March 17, 2001. They stayed for a week at our house. And what is so neat is that my parents and them got along great and talked as if they had been life long friends.
Alot has happened since. I saw all 3 siblings graduated high school, they saw me graduate from college, they were at my wedding, and now my oldest sister and I are best friends and she has moved to my town (about 2 miles away) and has married and now had a family.
I know this is rare to have all of this. It is a blessing to know where I came from now, my health history, where I get some of my traits, etc.
Just sharing my story.... but I also want to offer any advice or help to those searching. It can be very trying, but knowing who you are fully is worth it.

[RaeAnn74]

I was 29 when I found my biological mother.It made me really grateful that I had been given up for adoption because my life could have been much worse.She was an extremely unhappy,selfish and mentally unstable person.She was terrified that I would contact my biological brother and let him know of my existence as he has been led to believe he is an only child.She was not at all what I had hoped to find but I'm still glad I found her.It filled a hole in my heart that I could never really explain.I'm glad that I know of the high instance of breast cancer in her family so I now get regular mammograms.I flew across the country to meet her only to be turned away in a phone call a few miles from her house.She told me that seeing me would make me "real".I still can't believe the arrogance of that statement.I assured her that whether she ever laid eyes on me or not I was in fact a real,thinking,breathing feeling person.Despite the fact that it turned out badly I'm still glad I know the truth now.It's far easier to live with a hard truth than with endless questions.

[ctmom05]

Fifty four years ago my husband was adopted from the Cradle Agency as a newborn. There's no doubt that he had a good life with the Mom and Dad who adopted him.
He always knew who he was, but wanted to know about the his biological parents, partly to fill in the blanks to some of his questions and partly for medical background information.

After we exhausted all the mean we knew about, we looked into post adoption counseling thru the original adoption agency. Cost was a factor and my husband was also a bit fearful of being rejected, all over again.
In late June 2007, just past his 54th birthday - which must be a date that lot of people think of the children they gave up for adoption - he got a letter from the Cradle. They had confidential information for him.
One thing led to another, and while both side and proceeding with cautionmy husband and his birthfather are slowly building a relationship; right now thru emails and lots of pictures. Some of the blanks are getting filled in and my husband has had the unique expereince of seeing pictures of other people, besides our children, who look like him! He has 7 brothers and sisters and has formed an email loop with everyone, as they get to know one another.

[adoptionblessings]

How wonderful that your husband has found his birth father and is forging a relationship with him. I myself am an adoptee and I found my birth sisters and learned my family history and medical backround. It was lifechanging for me. How great that you are so supportive!
Blessings, Jody