The full story is now available on Amazon!

Search under adoption or by title name. This new book is available as a Kindle e-book or paperback! It is titled Alice: The Story of How I Met my Biological Parents. In this story, you will find details on a once-in-a-lifetime discovery. The reader will be on my shoulder when I meet my parents for the first time and experience many emotions: humor, worry, love, anxiety, mystery, acceptance and faith.

#adoptionstories

#DNAtesting

Nervous to look

The day I got my DNA test results back, I was nervous to open them. I was mostly worried about the three big genetic tests for which they offer counseling should they be positive. Man, the thought went through my head that I might need a mastectomy if I had the BRCA1 gene. Thank goodness all three were negative. I then moved to the relative match section, not expecting anything but still nervous. I opened it and found 3 people with the same last name! They predicted them to be an uncle and two half-sisters. OK this is it! After being denied for so long the legal ability to know, modern technology lays it all out there. Now the relatives have to open their records for you to see, but I thought that might warrant reaching out legally. I doubted all of them knew of my existence, so that is where it becomes a moral dilemma.

Taking a DNA test

This is truly an odd phenomenon in our culture, but modern medicine has opened up so many possibilities- both positive and negative. I wasn’t sure if we should worry about privacy down the road. I heard some saying to be careful because of insurance coverage. Regardless, based on the hundreds of questions they ask you if you participate in their surveys, it is truly amazing what can be deduced through saliva!

When I was a child, I was told I was adopted at a young age.

But I behaved better than my inner self really wanted to because I thought I could be given back. I wasn’t really mature enough until college to want to know my parents. I think it had to do with not knowing anyone who was related to me in this world and figuring out who I was going to be at that age. I graduated from college, worked and got married like I was supposed to do. My adoptive parents never told me anything about my birth parents, and though I loved them, I knew not to ask. Or rather…I was afraid to ask for fear of disappointing them. They had adopted four healthy babies, so technically, they were saints. I was actually proud to tell people this fact. I still wanted to know from where I came. I was born in the 60’s, and I have come to learn there was an epidemic of young, unmarried women having babies. Birth control was reserved for married women and their doctors. Sex education apparently was not a big deal, and homes for unwed mothers sprang up around the country. That left a lot of women who carry around a hole in their hearts today. They were told they couldn’t possibly raise their baby without a job or support, and adoption was the only choice. So there are a lot of adoptees and birth mothers from this time.