Family Ties: I was a people pleaser -- now I'm an adoptee right...

Family Ties: I was a people pleaser -- now I'm an adoptee right...: Recently, I participated in a long on-line conversation with other adopted adults about the challenges of following our own hearts and truth...

I Finally Understood My Birth Mom When I Gave My Own Baby Up For Adoption

I've heard that many adoptees give up their babies for adoption because they are trying so hard to "justify" being given up themselves. Thank you so much for sharing your beautiful letter and your honesty. It is a travesty that young, vulnerable MOTHERS are coerced and "counseled" into a life-time of loss for both them and their children. I so hope you are reunited with your beautiful daughter someday soon. I found my first mother who had died searching for me. Adoptees are a commodity, bought and sold in an industry and our very birth certificates are falsified and sealed. These laws are inhumane.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

No Apologies for Being Me: The State Stole My Birthright

No Apologies for Being Me: The State Stole My Birthright: My original sealed birth certificate released to me in 2007. I woke up this morning thinking about how the state stole my bir...

iAdoptee: I lost my parents too

iAdoptee: I lost my parents too: So yesterday was my birthday. And it was quite an amazing and wonderful day for a number of reasons. Probably the best birthday I've ever ha...

My Man, Moses!

I wrote the blog post below in 2008, but the awesome Deanna Shrodes over at Adoptee Restoration reminded me of it today. 

"The Prince of Egypt" movie truly hit home for me ~ Moses' search and freedom ~ both his and his people. 

I'm in an awesome Women's Bible Study at my church.  We're studying "A Woman's Heart" by Beth Moore. Yesterday we learned about Moses (his name means "drawn out") and how God protected and defended him throughout his life. The little basket that was used to save his life was a symbol of the "ark" of God's salvation (sozo ~ to save, deliver, protect, heal, and preserve). The Bible says it was "pitched, within and without". This was a black tarry substance used to make the basket waterproof against the torrents of the water during Moses' trip down the river. The word used for "pitch" (Kapher) actually translates "atonement" or "covering" 69 times in the O.T. On the outside, it looked like Moses was enveloped in a sticky, dark, smelly mess ~ but that "mess" became a symbol of God's love and protection, even from infancy, for a lifetime.

As we all know, Moses was separated from his natural family and raised by Pharoah's daughter. He grew up an Egyptian, yet the blood coursing through his veins was Jewish. What comforts me so much about reading about Moses' awesome life, is that God's restoration was so complete and intimate for Moses. He was the one God chose to lead the Isrealites out of slavehood bondage, and in that process, Moses found freedom himself. So much so, that he had to veil his face because it shined so brightly after spending time with God ~ He reflected God's GLORY and walked with God on an intimate basis! In fact, when Moses died, God HIMSELF buried him. God LOVED Moses that much.
That just totally blesses me! Why? Because Moses was NOT a GRATEFUL ADOPTEE!

Moses actually left his adoptive family, searched for & reunited with his natural family and people.  Yes, Moses was a rebel.  He's the one who went before Pharaoh saying "Let My People Go", not just once, but multiple times. He would have never won a popularity contest, within either family, actually. Yet, he was instrumental in the plan of history to bring freedom and deliverance to an entire populace. And even more precious than that, is the RELATIONSHIPS he was brave enough to embrace, and the INTIMACY that grew with his Creator.

Moses chose authenticity and relationship ~ through the "exodus", the wilderness, and the fierce waters of the Red Sea. Adoptees have the enormous developmental task of finding their identity ~ that COULD actually be compared to walking down the MIDDLE of a parting sea of emotions that easily feels like mammoth, impending killer waves. Moses needed support to hold his hands up during that journey. He couldn't go it alone, that's for sure. And that's how much faith it takes to walk the path of authenticity ~ so many choose never to go there. But Moses was a HEROIC example of an authentic adoptee.

At the end of his life, I bet he could have very well called himself "grateful" and "adoptee", but those words, by necessity of an authentic life, don't really fit together. Just like Joseph, who was another Biblical character separated from his natural family as a child, and later reunited. Moses would have probably quoted his fellow adoptee "brother" (Joseph) in saying "What the devil meant for evil, God has turned for good." 

God's perfect WILL isn't adoption ~ sorry. Adoption is born from LOSS first & foremost, and God isn't in the business of WILLING a child to lose it's mother, father, identity, and intended life. YET, God can and does TURN situations for good ~ and for THAT I'm grateful.

The long road to nowhere

Up From the Ash-Demeter’s Lament: 23-The long road to nowhere: The night before the “meeting to sign the paperwork”, I sat up all night with my baby next to me, fighting the urge to run with her; ins...

Autistic Hoya: Judge Rotenberg Center Survivor's Letter

Sharing this (and ask that you would please share it widely as well) to give a voice to these innocent victims and ask for the immediate end to this institution and this inhumane practice in the U.S.

Autistic Hoya: Judge Rotenberg Center Survivor's Letter: Trigger Warning: Extremely detailed description of abuse and torture of a disabled person. -- This letter was written by an autistic su...

Searching for Umma: Legacy of an Adopted Child

Searching for Umma: Legacy of an Adopted Child: Once there were two women who never knew each other.. One you do not remember, the other you call mother. Two different lives, shaped t...

10 Things Adoptees Want You to Know

Excellent article.

www.PeachNeitherHereNorThere.blogspot.com
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Adoptee Restoration: Do This With An Adoptee...I Dare You!

Adoptee Restoration: Do This With An Adoptee...I Dare You!: Photo Credit: memekode, Creative Commons The two biggest victims in adoption are adoptees and birth mothers. They aren't the only victim...  an excellent blog written by a friend and fellow adoptee, Deanna Shrodes.