Growing Up Is Hard To Do When They Won't Tell You Who You Are

Forming a family by adoption is a challenging adventure for all members of the family, especially the adopted themselves. Growing up adopted often brings with it a painful rent in the fabric of life because thousands of people are denied knowledge of their family (and genetic) heritage by laws that seal original birth certificates and adoption records forever. Given no choice by adoption agencies but to live in the shadow of a secret, parents who love and raise adopted children must deal with the consequences of the lifelong loss of the birth identities of those children. This book tells the story of how closed records affected one family and how an adoptive mother and adopted daughter worked together to break through the barriers of secrecy. Though the daughter's search for her birth mother did not lead to the meeting for which she had yearned, the process of searching strengthened both mother and daughter and their relationship. The book recounts a dramatic personal and family history and places the family's emotional growth in the context of the moving struggle of adopted people to change outdated laws that continue to cause needless pain to many thousands.