Thank you for this Deanna! I can't tell you how ostracized I've become at church since going public with my story and becoming vocal about adoption rights. I took my birth name as my pen name as a result. I'm "stuck in the past and "have issues" and "just need to get over it." We have so much work to do educating the church.

I can totally relate to this. My adopted mom always claimed to be supportive and even said she would help me once I turned 18 if I wanted to search. I spent two years searching and didn't tell my adopted family until someone had actually been found and contact was about to be made with real live people. The same thing happened to me. Suddenly the support ended. When the topic of my reunion came up my adopted mom always clearly pointed out "she searched to know her medical history" and while that was technically true, it wasn't the main reason behind my search. Some of my birth family came to my adopted father's funeral which resulted in a lot of friends asking questions. She overheard me telling the story and referring to my birth mom as my mom. I caught her reaction out of the corner of my eye. She started crying over what I said but walked up to the casket and pretended she was crying over my dad. My reunion lasted six years and now I do not have contact with my birth family (long story). Since there was a falling out she feels it gives her the right to talk negatively about them, and she definitely has a hard time hiding the glee in her voice. You've actually reminded me of an important part of my story I haven't written yet!
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