The Declassified Adoptee

I am glad that Adoptee Rights was given some real visibility on CCN TV with Don Lemon.  However, I am disappointed that an adult adoptee was not asked to be present for the interview.  Once again, adoptees were not given a place at the table.  This has become the norm in adoption.  Although some of my adoptive parent friends are some of my favorite people ever, they will tell you themselves that adoptive parents cannot be the only member of the adoption system invited to speak on adoption.  Adoptive parents and agencies are too often the only people invited to speak about adoption.  Shouldn't those who live out being adopted everyday of their lives be invited too? On SmartTalk Radio , PA Senator Greenleaf was interviewed with Mary Robinson, former CEO of the NCFA, and Adam Pertman, Executive Director of the EBD Adoption Institute. Represented between the three of them were adoptive parents, policy makers, and institution stakeholders.  Absolutely no one was invited to speak fro

My adoptive mother recently asked me how I thought being adopted caused me to view certain life experiences differently growing up than another children might.  One vivid memory that I recall involved how I recalled how adoption had been explained to me, and how that explanation impacted how I viewed a family financial emergency. When I was a young girl, I watched the short, Christian movie "Gerbert: Before my First Day Began."  The main character, Gerbert the puppet, learned he was adopted, just like he had adopted his stuffed lion named "Roary."  The lesson of the movie is that Gerbert had received a better life because his mother had put him up for adoption. One day, in the very real world, my adoptive father had to leave our home for several months to find work.  In my  very young mind at the time, I started to worry that our impoverished state would mean I would have to be adopted again by someone else.  According to my understanding of adoption, origin

Regardless of what position you take on NJ's bill, I think we can all agree that the "coalition" (NJ Catholic Conference, Lutheran Office of Governmental Ministry in New Jersey, NJ ACLU, NCFA, NJ Bar Assoc, and NJ Right to Life) formed to oppose it is hitting nasty lows instead of sticking to the facts.  When they're not marching into access legislation hearings referring to adoptees as "stalkers," they're submitting Op-Ed articles like this one designed to mislead the public and strike more fear in the hearts of legislators and voters based on the stereotype that adult adoptees want to pass legislation that will lower adoption rates and raise abortion rates. I submitted a rebuttal to the Trenton Times to the Op-Ed article, as did many of you, and we can only hope that they will print our comments.  However, in case they won't, I thought I would post it here as well. I wrote: The Op-Ed article published July 11th, 2010 about birth record acc