Moms, dads and children

One thing that I've been discovering over the year past since meeting my birthmom in December is that being adopted has made a big difference to me. It shaped my life in ways that I was only half-aware of. For instance, it seems a little silly to say, but I had heard that my mom was a nurse. So, for years as I would visit a hospital, I would look for a Japanese nurse... someone who might be my mom. Now obviously this was purely irrational since I live in NY and the likelihood of encountering her at Columbia Memorial Hospital was really nil. But it was on that level that so much of the effect of adoption lay.

Today, reading Maggi Dawn's blog, she posted a reference to this article. I've posted a copy of this to adoption.com here. This woman's story is unusual in that she finally did keep her child. Tragically, she completed suicide last week.

Many dear members of the adoption.com forum are birthmoms who gave up their children under duress... with the thought that doing so would enable them to move on with their lives and provide the best opportunities for their children. The reality proved much more complicated than that.