Thread by @LilSallyScoop

45 years ago today I was handed to two strangers and my mother disappeared. I was 5 days old. #adopteevoices 1/

According to my (adoptive) mom’s account in my baby book, 2 of her friends had helped bring me home. According to my (biological) mother, she and her mother drove me to my new home, and personally handed me over. There was even a tour, or so I was told. 2/

And society at large wants me to be grateful for being given a life and opportunities I maybe wouldn’t have otherwise had, when all I can see is a terrified barely-17 year old being pushed by her mother to had over her 5 day old child to strangers. The first grandchild. 3/

And then she was gone. And I was erased. 4/

I entered reunion at age 40. The first time I met my biological grand-mother, my biological mother was there. And the pair told me I was loved and wanted and was always family. 5/

Both women told me they hadn’t wanted to give me up. It was a sentiment that apparently had never been spoken before in my 40 years. How could that be? If that was true, why did neither stop what happened 45 years ago today? 6/

Did they really hold such little power that it truly was easier to hand me over than to fight to keep me? If they had no power, then who in their family was the driving force of this decision? In my case, I see a whole family team effort that let to my adoption. 7/

It’s hard to feel so strongly for that vulnerable 17 year old new mother while also carrying anger at the lack of fight for that new mother’s 5 day old child. 8/

I was loved. I was erased. I was wanted. I was handed to strangers. I am an #adoptee. #adopteevoices 9/9