Happy Birthday Sandra Lynn!
Or it might be Sandra "Lyn". Or possibly even Sandra "Lynne". Can't remember without fishing through a lot of paperwork. Anyway, on Hallowe'en 1969, a baby girl was born and given the name Sandra Lyn(n)(e) by a young unwed mother. She was then whisked away 7 days later to her new family (a mother, a father and a two years senior brother) - eventually to grow up and be... me!
The adoption laws provide "non-identifying information" to an adoptee, meaning I have the first name my birthmother gave me but no last name. I know I have a full brother 11 months older than me, but again, no name. I have at least two 1/2 sisters and I have lots of aunts and uncles, but no way to know who any of them are. And of course a father, who seemed to be in a rather unhappy marriage based on his extracurricular activities.
I would absolutely LOVE a picture of my birth family members - any or all of them. I don't even necessarily want to meet anyone, just a picture and maybe some details would suffice. The good people at the ministry that handles adoptions will do a search for the right amount of money, which I paid about 20 years back. They kindly found my birthmother and passed on a message from me that I was doing well and thanked her for making what I consider to be an unselfish choice. She most definitely didn't want to meet me at the time and I assume nothing has changed, since she only has to contact the ministry and they would call me.
Although sometimes sheer curiosity gets the better of me and it feels like a juicy novel I'll never get to finish, I'm usually quite content to let it be. She has every right to a private life - she signed no-contact papers 46 years ago, and I won't be knocking on her door. I even regret asking for the Ministry's search services; I think I overstepped my bounds. I'd like to apologize for the that somehow, but then that would kind of be a real catch-22 now, wouldn't it?
At any rate, I pray for her and my brother and my father and his daughters (my 1/2 sisters) at least around my birthday. It's about all I can do. And then I think of the much that I have to be thankful for! So much... probably more than I even know.
The adoption laws provide "non-identifying information" to an adoptee, meaning I have the first name my birthmother gave me but no last name. I know I have a full brother 11 months older than me, but again, no name. I have at least two 1/2 sisters and I have lots of aunts and uncles, but no way to know who any of them are. And of course a father, who seemed to be in a rather unhappy marriage based on his extracurricular activities.
I would absolutely LOVE a picture of my birth family members - any or all of them. I don't even necessarily want to meet anyone, just a picture and maybe some details would suffice. The good people at the ministry that handles adoptions will do a search for the right amount of money, which I paid about 20 years back. They kindly found my birthmother and passed on a message from me that I was doing well and thanked her for making what I consider to be an unselfish choice. She most definitely didn't want to meet me at the time and I assume nothing has changed, since she only has to contact the ministry and they would call me.
Although sometimes sheer curiosity gets the better of me and it feels like a juicy novel I'll never get to finish, I'm usually quite content to let it be. She has every right to a private life - she signed no-contact papers 46 years ago, and I won't be knocking on her door. I even regret asking for the Ministry's search services; I think I overstepped my bounds. I'd like to apologize for the that somehow, but then that would kind of be a real catch-22 now, wouldn't it?
At any rate, I pray for her and my brother and my father and his daughters (my 1/2 sisters) at least around my birthday. It's about all I can do. And then I think of the much that I have to be thankful for! So much... probably more than I even know.
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