The Adoption Search is an interesting article via blogger Sandra.

For some in their 40s, 50s and older, adoption searching has been a Pandora's Box; for others, there is newfound peace with closure.

This is definitely a pertinent article for me. It talks about how older people are more in a place to have "more patience and wisdom about who they are and what they are looking for by reuniting." Adoption searches for older folks are more about looking for resolution, whereas younger adoptees are looking for answers.

In this article, they describe several different adoption search and reunions with varying results. Most are positive and successful reunion stories. One women relates no success in finding her birth parents, but says that she still thinks about it.

The need to reconnect with birth family is a need that rarely seems to dissappear. Although many people think that reunions involve young adults and birth parents, that is often not the case. Although I have heard about a few reunions where the adoptees were still young and at home, that situation is relatively rare. Obviously, adoptive parents need to consent to reunions when the adoptees are still underaged and living at home.

The majority of searching adoptees are in their mid-thirties. However, as referenced above, age does not seem to diminish a need to search and reconnect. One adoptee friend of mine that I wrote about last year in this post waited until she was nearly fifty years old to search. One of the first comments from her birth mother was, "I had hoped that you would find me before I died." Her birth mother was 76 years old or so when they reunited.

A few years ago at an adoption registry event, I recall one of the first people at our table was an adoptee in her 70's. She was very eager to talk to us and immediately spread out a packet of adoption papers for us to peruse. As we age, the press of time does run through our minds and we become painfully aware that time is running out for us. Our maturity does serve us well too when dealing with difficult search and reunion issues.

More reunion stories:

Our Dreams Came True

The Opposite of Lost is Found.


Photo copyright 2007 By Jan Baker