Being Adopted and The Experience Of Finding My Birth Family

As an adopted gal, this guy says EXACTLY how I felt about my birth mom. All his fears, I had the same fears in finding her. I didn't want to be the skeleton in the closet. The night I called her and found her for the first time, I sobbed uncontrollably the entire night. I was so afraid that I had just screwed someone else's life up. I was so afraid I had hurt my 4 amazing brothers that didn't know I existed for 45 years. And my only intention in finding my birth mom, was just to say thank you.

(These are myself and 3 of my brothers and my husband Jamie at spin class, which is particularly strange for me since I was raised an only child.)

I just adore the love this guy has in his heart about being adopted, and I feel exactly the way he felt about it. I hear since this video got shared around, he did find his birth mom.

What a lot of people don't know about the experience of being adopted, is, I never felt like I fit in anywhere. I could be in a group of people, and it would seem like I fit just perfectly, but, inside, I always felt like an outsider. What I found out later was, that every one feels that way a little bit. We are all really just that awkward 10 year old deep inside.

I always felt like it was the ultimate act of love to give up a baby. You have to love that baby enough, to not be selfish, and come to terms with the fact that you are caring for that child for 9 months, and then, you will not be raising the child. I've always felt so much gratitude and so much love from my birth mom.

My birth mom couldn't take care of me at the time. She hit a rocky point in her current marriage, and got pregnant. She already had 3 beautiful boys, age 6, 8, and 10. She was so overwhelmed that she simply couldn't take care of another baby. She moved away, so, the boys didn't see her with a baby in her belly, and gave me up before my birth. She held me at the hospital, and then 2 weeks later, tried to come and get me back. However, I was already adopted.

I'm so happy that she ended up getting married and was with a wonderful man for 30 years, and had another son. So, yes, I have 3 older brothers, and one younger brother. The entire family has been so good to me.

Now, 3 years later, I have the best of both worlds. I have 2 wonderful parents (you will always be my mom and dad) that raised me. And I have my birth family, who welcomed me with open arms. And I love all of you for that. :).

This photo was the very first time I met them all..........




And being that we all had the same sense of humor, we thought we needed to do a typical pose that we would have done when we were little kids ..............