Adoption Search

Adoption.com's Search and Reunion Registry has hit 400,000 individual profiles! Across the United States, profiles of those looking for long-lost family members are consistently created, making the Adoption.com Registry the #1 online adoption reunion registry available today. With the ever-growing number of profiles, finding a family member is and will be a reality for many. Currently, an estimated 53.5% of the Adoption.com Registry users are adoptees searching for a birth parent or a birth sibling.  Adoption.com's next highest statistical grouping is birth mothers, at 23.3% of the online profiles. The rest consist of birth siblings, birth fathers, adoptive family members, and search angels-those who aide in reuniting and reconnecting searchers. Adoption.com reaches out and supports all those searching for family members… [more]

There are many of you out there who want to begin your search for reconnection—or at least have thought about it. It can be a scary thing to think about. It is full of unknowns and mystery. And because the reconnection journey can be so long and arduous, just the mere thought can be completely overwhelming. For those who have already reconnected or are currently in the thick of reconnecting, you understand what others are going through. That’s one reason it is important to be a support to others in similar situation. Use your story and your experience to guide, instruct, and inform others. Some of those who are searching don’t know how to get started or how to continue. This is where… [more]

Reuniting with your family members can be a difficult and arduous journey. For some, the search is simple, quick, and easy. For others, it is a process-a long process, at that. Whether hiring a private detective is the first option on your list or the last option, here are some common questions to inquire about before settling on one private detective over another. What resources will be used? Find out what methods he or she regularly employs to get the job done. Are you comfortable with all the methods or resources that may be used? Your private investigator should be able to talk in depth about each resource. Not only should you be comfortable with it, he or she should also be confident… [more]

As an adoptee who had a relatively uneventful childhood, searching for my birthparents wasn't a consuming goal for me growing up. I had a natural curiosity regarding obvious biological things: did anyone look like me, where did my blue eyes come from, who could I blame for this skin that burns in the slightest sun? Sometimes I would fantasize about how different my life might have been if I had been raised by my biological family or wonder if I had any siblings. As I became an older teenager, I developed a persistent concern that I might accidentally fall in love with a biological relative, heaven forbid, and having seen a cover story in the Weekly World News, have a resulting love child… [more]

When Oscar Wilde wrote that "the final mystery is oneself," we can assume he was referring to an individual's ability to develop self awareness. He might just as well have been referring to the journey that many adult adoptees take when they undertake a search to discover their biological roots. Our greatest mystery happens to be ourself: a mystery created when adoptions were hidden, closed, disguised from the world. Whether by design or by chance, adult adoptees find themselves in a position to undertake a Sherlock Holmes-like voyage of discovery whose ending cannot be predicted. My search experience spans twenty years from my first request for non-identifying information until my first face-to-face meeting with my birth mother. Along the way, I encountered opposition… [more]

Although I am usually fairly faithful in keeping up with comments, I found a buried request recently for information about searching in Washington State. Washington State does have the confidential intermediary system. My son found me through the agency in Washington that handled his adoption. It took them nine months to find me as I had moved several times over the years. There were also several name changes as well due to marriage and divorce. Using confidential intermediaries has its pros and cons, like any search method. However, in some states with sealed records, it may be your best chance for locate your birth parent or child. Some adoption agencies in the state will do searches for adoptees. The fees can be fairly high… [more]

This reunion story is another of those stories that make you shake your head at the interesting twist in the story. An adoptee who searched for her birth mother discovered that ten years previously that she and her birth mother had worked in the same beauty salon. They had little chance to talk though or they might have discovered their connection at that time. I know another adoptee who discovered that several years before reunion that he and his birth mother worked in the same building at the same time. There are often quirky kinds of happenings in adoption reunions. One part of me wants to call them coincedences, but another part of me thinks it could be something more than that. Adoptee, Michelle… [more]

This editorial states that: Adoptive adults deserve sympathy and support in reconciling with their fate. What they don't need is a proposed state law granting them access to records that make it easier for them to identify and contact their birth parents. Adoptees do not need sympathy or support if their "fate" is adoption. They need their adoption records and should have a right to them. How insulting is it to adoptees to insinuate that they need people to feel sympathetic towards them, but imply they should just accept the fact that they do not know their own roots? And then, of course, there is the obligatory argument about birth mothers needing their privacy. Just once I would love to see an open records… [more]

Unlocking the Past - A State Senator's Awakening Ignites His Crusade For The Rights Of Adoptees is a news article about a state senator and mayoral candidate and his adoption journey. Connecticut Senator Bill Finch was told when he was 8 or 9 years old that he was adopted. He says that even after that, it never occurred to him that he had "anything less than an idyllic childhood." "It was only after I started having children myself and needed access to family medical records, that I needed access to my own past, that I realized something had been taken away from me." The Senator is sponsoring a bill that would allow adoptees to obtain copies of their original birth certificates once… [more]

Adoption reunion registries can sometimes match people quickly. However, most registries are mutual consent registries and only work when both parties sign up. Many people are not aware of these registries which cuts down on the probability that they will result in a match. However, with the popularity of the Internet, I believe that more people find their way to registries every day. Reunite.com's registry currently has over 300,000 people registered. Below are some points to regarding the use of an adoption registry: 1. Many people who use adoption registries cannot completely fill out forms required to sign up because they may not know the information. People who manage the registries understand that this is the case. Don't worry if… [more]