I’ve been out on medical leave for some time now. It’s hard to share about that, but I would like to share the reactions that I get from people that I talk to. My particular medical treatments are daily and at the same time of day. As such, there are other individuals that go at the same time daily as well.

It’s interesting to me, and a bit surprising, how often the subject of adoption comes up in casual conversation. I was speaking with an individual, we’ll call him John. The conversation started due to family medical history, so it’s not a far stretch that John mentioned he was adopted and did not know his history. He had recently found his biological family and learned that both parents died from cancer.

He also found half siblings on both sides. This ended up being painful for him as they were never told about the adoption, at least on one side. He was a shock to them. As a birth mother myself, it is my greatest fear in reaching out to find my daughter. I don’t want to shake her up like that. I do not want her to find out about the adoption through some DNA testing gone very, very wrong. I’m so grateful to see so many of our adoptions done in an open and caring fashion. This means a lot on all sides and it’s just healthy to do it.