Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Super Pumped and Majorly Excited

First and foremost, hello!  When I heard about this blog, my very first thought was "Boy, I need to get in on this!"  I'm so excited that I get to participate with some of my all time favorite bloggers.  I've learned so much from this particular group of women and I don't know if I'd be in this place without them.

Here's the basic rundown of my life.  I was adopted when I was two months old to a pair of people who had been trying to become parents for about ten years.  They never thought to try adoption until my mom's friend from work suggested that they give it a try and gave her information to the agency that she used to adopt her son.  My parents were told they could wait up to a year and were extremely surprised when they got the call two months later!  When I was three, my parents adopted my younger sister from the same agency and our family was "complete" in their eyes.  They always told my sister and I that we were adopted, and because they went through the process to get my sister, I had an idea as to how I was brought into the family as well, even if I knew I was a little bit older than she was.

While adoption was a topic that came up in our home from time to time, it's something that we rarely talked about because it "didn't really matter".  My family forgot that we were adopted all the time, and some of them still are surprised if it ever comes up.  However, just because something isn't talked about, that doesn't mean that it doesn't affect a person.

While in college, I ran into some health problems that needed to be addressed.  Apparently, if one doesn't have a full family medical history, it's hard to diagnose a person (insert eye roll here).  I was pretty much told that I couldn't figure out my issues without getting a better medical history.  So off searching I went thinking that my life was already pretty complete and that finding them wouldn't really change anything.  Oh to be young and naive.  I had my first parents' first names and birthdays, as well as some other random facts like where they were born.  I was able to track down my first mother after paying for a report online and found my first father when I figured out that they were married.  My first mother was initially happy to email with me, but things have since gone sour and now I have a wonderful relationship with my first father as I wait for my siblings to grow up enough for our parents to tell them about me.  I've learned so much about myself and where I come from throughout the process and I'd have to say that despite the pain and heartache, reunion is one of the best things I've ever done for myself.

So here I am, a year and a half into my reunion blogging about my experiences.  I'm learning new things and listening to new ideas.  I used to think that the world was black and white, but now I know that nothing is really as it seems and there's loads of gray floating around out there.  I used to think that it was my life calling to adopt a baby when I "grew up" and now I'm a family preservation advocate.  My how things change!  I'm looking forward to blogging about some of the issues with this amazing group of women and I can't wait to see where this takes us!