A man who spent the first minutes of his life wrapped in a towel on the larder shelf of a house in Portadown, has returned to his birthplace in search of his past.

From Great Britain comes this story about a young man who returned to the house where he was born and abandoned 35 years ago. A young woman left him at a stranger's house shortly after giving birth.

Apparently, the young woman who was described as probably a "school girl in trouble" knocked on the door of a home. She was in labor and the homeowner offered her tea and then set off to find a phone to call for medical help. By the time she returned, the mother was gone, but had left her newborn son.

Now, her 35 year old son wants to find out more about his birth mother and the circumstances that caused her to abandon him. I have wondered at times if children who were actually abandoned as opposed to being placed for adoption still have an interest in a search. However, apparently they often do.

Some adoptees have abandonment issues whether they were literally left on a doorstep or lovingly placed for adoption. I suppose it makes little difference when an adoptee feels a need to search what the the actual circumstances really were.

I wonder if there is understanding that to truly abandon a baby must surely require the most desperate of circumstances? Some adoptees may believe that a child is abandoned because a mother does not want the child. Come to think of it, some adoptees believe that mothers who place babies for adoption do not love or want them. However, that probably is not the majority opinion - I really do not know.

This young man's search may be a difficult one unless someone comes forward with some information for him. Babies who are abandoned do have even greater challenges than those who are placed for and/or relinquished to adoption.