I saw the following on the Concerned United Birth Parent mailing list and thought it was an excellent piece. After contacting the author, Jim Serrano, I asked for and received his permission to reprint his article titled "Twice Adopted" on the blog. I hope you enjoy it.

You are probably wondering why I called my story twice adopted; well here is the journey and the facts as to why the title sums up my life.

I was adopted at two weeks of age and the second adoption was seven years ago when I found unconditional love from my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

I guess this is where I start at the beginning; I was adopted when I was two weeks old by my parents Joe and Lupe Serrano, which was 45 years ago. I was raised in Gilroy, California and grew up in a very strict household. The first time I found out that I was adopted I was about 11 years old. My parents, brothers, and sisters would tell me they got me at the supermarket all through my teenage years. I always had it in the back of my mind, that maybe I was adopted. I acted out a lot, which meant I had anger, drugs, and alcohol issues. I always felt unworthy because of my birth parents giving me up for adoption. I figured they didn’t want me. Many years later when I was dating my wife we were eating dinner and I told her I had something to tell her so I told her I was adopted and she said it was okay! Yet in the back of my mind I thought she would think that there was something wrong with me because my birth parents gave me up for adoption, this was 25 years ago.

The next part of the journey would be actually starting to search for my birth parents. Back in 1999 I was watching a TV program about adoption and the program explained how to get un-identifying information so I decided it was time for me to look, for myself, and for my 12 year old daughter. My journey began with going to my parents and letting them know that I was going to search for my birth parents and if they could please give me all the information that they had. My parent’s reaction was why and I remember my dad telling me, “Are you prepared to find out what’s out there?” My mom was saying if I was trying to replace them. I told them no but I needed to find out what I was. The information I got said I was born in San Jose and was adopted through the county. I work in San Jose driving a concrete truck so one day after work I went to the count office and asked if I could get my un-identifying information. The woman at the desk told me that those records are closed and I could not get the information I wanted. I came home disappointed and told my wife what happened. She told her brother so he decided to call the social worker that I spoke to and convinced her to call me back in her office to sign a waiver so I could get the information but it could take up to a year to get the information.