Does anyone remember ?

Someone asked – Does anyone remember the day they were abandoned ?

Even if your parent/s came back eventually or if you were adopted into a nice family.. does anyone remember the day their parents willingly left them (like in terms that they either just didn’t want you anymore or left without a fight) ? Does it bother anyone else ? My “anniversary date” is coming up again (next week) and it always throws me off for a few days.. it’s been 9 years but I don’t know, it still feels like a reverse birthday or something..

I’ve never heard anyone talk about it, so I don’t know if its just me…

If there is anyone in the same boat, how do you guys get over it/push through it.. I have an exam for university right before and right after my “dates” and I can’t have it bother me but I already feel it coming..

Please, I can’t handle nasty messages right now…

This came in response – July especially, the first 2 weeks, is hard for me. I suggest reading “The Body Keeps Score” by Bessel van der Kolk – once you are past the trauma-versary. In the meantime, lots of self care and only do what has to be done (like your test). Other things can wait. Then she shares, “I was 12, when I was placed. Had to talk to a detective (due to sexual abuse), and then, go to the doctor’ office s a few hours later. I remember being angry at my biological mom for making me go. I wouldn’t let her (I’m not sure the doctors would have let her anyways) go into the doctor’s office with me. When she found out I was pregnant (I already knew but didn’t say anything), the detectives told her I was going into foster care. They asked if she wanted to come back and see me, before I was placed, and she chose to just leave without a word.”

Abandoned As A Baby

Fatima Whitbread throwing the javelin

Saw this article by Hayley Myers in The Guardian – LINK>I was abandoned as a baby, but I’m one of the lucky ones – and I knew I had to share it today. The second time reads – “The world champion javelin-thrower talks about growing up in care and the love of her foster family – and how sport was her saviour.”

Her story reminds me of one I heard that happened to my mom (only we weren’t abandoned but the intention was just leaving us briefly to run an errand – thankfully no police came, we weren’t taken away from our family – it was a neighbor who came when she heard crying and then, my mom returned).

So Fatima begins her story – “I was abandoned as a baby and left to die in our flat. A neighbour heard me crying and called the police, who broke down the door and rescued me. I spent the next 14 years living in institutions, among other traumatised children. Because of the love from my foster family and my passion for sport, I count myself one of the lucky ones.”

“Not a lot has improved in the care system. Governments come and go, kicking the same tin can down the road. It’s impossible to believe that the sixth largest economy in the world struggles to look after young people suffering through no fault of their own.”

“Auntie Rae, who worked at the care home, was my bright shining star. She was “Mum” to so many children and taught me that in giving, you receive. Encouraging me to love others swivelled my lens outwards. I stopped getting stuck in the prison of my own thoughts.”

She shares – “Having my son was my proudest moment. It was important to me that I break the cycle and be a good parent, so I put him ahead of my career. I don’t regret it. If you asked my boy today, I think he’d say he had a good start to life.”

The interview with her ends on this note – Nobody gets over trauma. You just learn to deal with it. Every day I look in the mirror and ask my younger self, “Would you ever have thought you’d be a world champion?” And I say to her, “You’ve done all right. I’m looking after you. You’ll be fine.”

When Adoption Is Justified

Not the actual note mentioned in today’s story.

From an adoptive parent – My son was surrendered to a hospital. Physically walked inside and handed over, with a pretty lengthy note. The note was taken by the investigative social worker that night and put in his “file”. It is assumed that the biological mother called the safe haven hotline asking for nearest box, but it was hours away, so they coordinated with the closest hospital for her to take him. As a licensed foster parent, I received a call for him that night (late) and met him next day.

Upon learning of this note, I asked to be given it for his sake. Besides the clothes he was wrapped in, when he was brought in, that’s the only biological tie he has left. The hospital thankfully sent the clothes home with me, which I still have. I was told “No” and that “wasn’t my place” every time I asked for the note because I was “just” the foster parent. (Basically his case was open for a year before adoption, so I was “just” the foster parent the entirety of that.) The case went through multiple worker’s hands and I tried each and every worker, only to be told the same thing. There are some details I won’t go into, but they did look for the biological parents to try and charge them. They even went so far as to review video footage from the hospital – to which the hospital told social workers no, and police got involved. He was born outside of a hospital, then brought in, so there is no way to know who biological parents are, unless they want to come forward one day.

After adoption, I asked for the note, which by then was in a sealed record. I was advised to do records request and do this and that and blah blah blah. Even though I did everything they told me to, nothing ever worked. Try this department next. This went on for a year. I called the ombudsman’s office and they were zero help. Eventually I got an attorney involved and just like magic, I got a COPY of the note in my email. I was thankful for that, but I continued to push for the original. My perspective is that it is my son’s right to have this. I was told the original had been destroyed. Don’t even get me started.

Based off of the note, I do assume the biological mother really DID want to remain anonymous. I have spoke with the safe haven organization and asked if they ever heard anything since that night to which they have not. I told them to please let me know if they ever do because I personally know of another safe haven family that was able to connect with biological mother and they have an open adoption. Biological mothers can call into safe haven organization and receive counseling, as well as let them know if they are seeking an open adoption or even just contact in general. Organization was able to connect adoptive mother and biological mother. It has to be wanted on both sides, or they won’t connect them. I wanted them to know I was open to that, if anything were to ever come in the future.

Cold Cruel Adoptive Mother

“For not an orphan in the wide world can be so deserted as the child who is an outcast from a living parent’s love.” ~ Charles Dickens

In the BBC 2008 Mini Series – Little Dorrit – Arthur Clennam’s “mother” never lets him see his beautiful biological mother, who dies of grief from being separated from her son. That is the “secret” revealed near the end of this excellent series. It is easy to note early on how cold, cruel and dismissive the woman that Arthur thinks of as “his mother” is towards him.

There is so much that could be said and I found tons of perspectives and essays about Dickens and orphans with a quick Google search. Charles Dickens’ oldest son, Charley, once wrote that “the children of his brain were much more real to him at times than we were.” He really wasn’t a sterling character in his own life. After 10 children and a series of post-partum depressions, his wife Catherine had grown fat, tired, and dull. He met a young actress named Ellen Ternan, a girl the same age as his daughter, Kate. It is said that they had a son who died in infancy. Dickens’s children may have disappointed him, but he almost always got what he wanted. When he died, Kate joined her siblings in summoning Ellen Ternan to his deathbed.

Dickens involvement with the imaginative and emotional implications of orphanhood and of the horror of abandonment is inscribed in Dickens’s fiction. All the forms that give shape to the self – status, work, citizenship, marriage, parenthood, property – are explored from the subjective vantage point of what may be termed the orphan imagination. Dickens was relentless in critiquing child labor, both in legal and criminal enterprises, and exposing the hypocrisy of a society that allows children to live on the streets. In a Dickens novel, orphans, women, and the mentally disabled repeatedly suffer.

In Dickens’ 11th novel, Little Dorrit, he tells the story of a little girl, Amy Dorrit, who is raised in a debtors’ prison, where she spends much of her life. Yet she develops into a capable and caring person. She works as a seamstress for a family whose son, Arthur, falls in love with her. With time, the Dorrits prosper and Arthur falls into debt. Later, it is revealed that Arthur’s “supposed” mother has been cheating him and the Dorrits.

High mortality rates made orphans commonplace during that time in England. Dickens tendency to obsessively include orphaned children throughout his literature. Little Dorrit is capable of standing up for herself and for what she believes is right and what is wrong. In the end Mrs. Clennam is forced to reveal that Arthur is not really her son and that she has been keeping money from him and the Dorrits for many years. Mrs Clennam’s unloving attitude drove her husband to infidelity, which resulted in a son, Arthur. Mrs. Clennam raised him as her own, without any motherly feeling. When Arthur’s birth mother died, his paternal grandfather bequeathed money to Amy, who was born in the Marshalsea the day Arthur’s birth mother died there.

Little Dorrit is a novel by Charles Dickens, originally published in serial form between 1855 and 1857. The novel satirizes some shortcomings of both government and society, including the institution of debtors’ prisons, where debtors were imprisoned, unable to work and yet incarcerated until they had repaid their debts. The prison in this case is the Marshalsea, where Dickens’s own father had been imprisoned. Imprisonment – both literal and figurative – is a major theme of the novel, with Clennam and the Meagles quarantined in Marseilles, Rigaud jailed for murder, Mrs Clennam confined to her house, the Dorrits imprisoned in the Marshalsea, and most of the characters trapped within the rigidly defined English social class structure of the time.

Here is a preview of the series we finished watching last night –

Baby Box Push Back

I’ve written here before about Baby Boxes. The anonymous way to leave your baby that is popping up – not only all over the United States but all over the world. However, it appears that all is not well and good in Baby Box land and some activists are speaking out by making some realistic arguments.

Here is one example from Colorado (which seems to be out front of a lot of shifting perspectives these days). Lori Holden who writes as Lavender Luz recently testified at a hearing for Baby Boxes in Colorado. She has a lot to say – you can read it at this LINK>Colorado’s Baby Box Bill: My Testimony At The State Capitol.

It has occurred to me that Baby Boxes are a commercial business interest – the cost is $16,000 per box (plus maintenance) – while continuing an enduring failure to support mothers in crisis. And regardless of safety features, something could still go wrong related to the box itself. She notes “If we truly understood baby’s brains and what makes for secure attachment we would not encourage anonymous and impersonal Baby Boxes. We would encourage MORE connection for a vulnerable mother and her infant, not less. Baby boxes make this lifelong process of forming connection to self and others even more difficult by the disconnections inherent in such an impersonal dropoff.”

Lori shares another voice against Baby Boxes – LINK>Stop Baby Boxes Now which is “An adoptee-centered non-partisan website that serves as an educational source and tool to de-propagandize and deconstruct the Safe Haven Baby Box myth and movement.” Doubt the commercial interest ? – I found this LINK>A Scorched Earth Lawsuit – revealing. “The baby box company filed suit in Federal Court against the Miami-based traditional safe haven advocacy organization A Safe Haven for Newborns/Gloria Silverio Foundation, its founder and director Nick Silverio, the South Trail Fire Rescue District, and Amy Bollen, its public relations director, accursing them of slander, defamation, and “tortuous interference with contract or business.”

When I was trying to get original birth information for my mom, I did have brief contact with Gregory Luce – LINK>Boxes at Any Cost. He is a Minnesota-based lawyer and an adoptee rights activist. He is the founder of Adoptee Rights Law Center PLLC and the executive director of Adoptees United Inc.

First Time in Missouri

I have been following the overall baby box story for some time. Recently, I heard on the news here about the first time a baby has been surrendered at Missouri’s first and only baby box location. The baby was only several hours old, when the baby was put into the box on Feb 8th, at the Mehlville Fire Station.

The baby box was installed at Firehouse 2 in August of 2023. The fire chief says the district plans on installing another one at Firehouse 5. The goal is to have it ready by the end of next year. Fire Chief Brian Hendricks said they test the box every week. The firefighters were shocked when the alarm went off, but everything went smoothly.

It is said that the baby is safe and doing well, after being put under the care of the state for eventual adoption. The baby’s information has been subsequently put into the missing and exploited database, in case the child’s other parent wanted to file for reunification with the child. So far, the child has not been reported missing. The Safe Haven Baby Box allows for the legal safe surrender of a baby with complete anonymity.

If someone chooses to surrender their infant in the baby box, the door locks once the door closes. Alarms alert the location that a baby has been surrendered and personnel will retrieve the infant within five minutes. The infant will immediately be transported to the hospital for medical evaluation and will be with its adoptive family soon after. Families that want to adopt a Safe Haven baby should reach out to their local Department of Family Services to register for foster care.

The organization also has a National Hotline, 1-866-99BABY1. The hotline provides free, confidential counseling with expertise in each state’s Safe Haven Law.

Before It’s Too Late

No easy answers to today’s story – I was adopted at birth. Back in 2009, my birth mother was contacted by the adoption agency on my behalf about initiating contact. I was about 27 at the time. She told them it was too hard for her to open up that part of her life again, cried and said I’m loved and hopes I’m happy and healthy and provided a brief family medical history. In her defense, they called her at work out of the blue.

I’ve left it at that the last 15 years. Part of me respected her position on it and had empathy, part of me obviously felt so confused and rejected, and part of me is still mad that it’s all her decision. Through the craziest of circumstances and coincidences, I’ve learned that I know multiple people that know her (she has no idea I know who she is) and have been blessed with the vast majority of my questions answered and I know a lot about her and her family. Recently, someone told me they think she’s going through cancer treatment. Been thinking about reaching out and wondering if anyone has done that after being shut down in the past.

One who was adopted by their stepfather writes – I didn’t find out I was adopted by who turned out to be my stepdad until I was 26 and fully by accident. I reached out to my birth dad and was shut down. Years later I, found out through the grapevine he has leukemia. In my heart, I was wanting to help him, so I reached out again. This time the door was slammed so hard that I never emotionally recovered. Based solely on my personal experience, my advice is she meant what she said and leave it or risk being hurt again.

Another adoptee writes – I was rejected by my biological mom after we had been in reunion and I’m not sure I’ve ever recovered either. I’m so sorry. I find comfort in knowing I’m not alone. It sucks that it’s this club we are in!

Another adoptee suggests – What if you had someone reach out on your behalf, like a mediator? I think you will always wonder. You know what the worst case scenario is… get comfortable with it (as much as one can) and then go for it.

And another adoptee also – I’d take the risk, because you may never get a second chance. At least then, you’ll know either way how it plays out.

The original person responds – yeah, you’re probably right. I found my biological dad and family this year and just reached out to my brother on social media without a second thought. I was nervous but just said F it and did it. It’s been great! But, I do feel the parent relationship and particularly the mom is far more complicated on both sides.

Then one from experience – I say do it. My mother died of cancer and I was sorry that we never made peace before she passed. If she doesn’t want to connect with you, at least you tried and you will have that much peace with the circumstances.

A transracial adoptee writes – I would try again. Definitely be prepared for rejection, though. Both of my bios seemed interested in a relationship, then changed their minds. It is pretty awful and heartbreaking.

One who grew up in foster care writes – I didn’t meet my biological father until I was an adult and I put it off when I was 18 because I wasn’t ready. Sadly, he died 2 years later and I do wonder if I should have been more open and met earlier, we would have had more time. The bottom line is, because you’re asking and wondering, you don’t seem to have complete closure, and you deserve that. No matter the outcome, if you try again and even say everything you want to say, maybe write a letter, and get to say that you just want to get to know her with no expectations or that you’re not upset with her or whatever you truly feel, or that you won’t ever reach out again but you had to try one last time… whatever you want to say … get it off your chest, give yourself that chance and that closure.

The original person responds – Yes, this is exactly what I’ve wanted to do for the last 15 years. Not knowing exactly how to know – did she even receive my request ? When the agency recapped the conversation, it felt like she thought I was gunning for her. Like I was showing up to say, “why did you do this to me?” She got pregnant her senior year and I’ve seen pictures of her at that time. She was such a child and I strongly feel she didn’t have a choice in the matter. There are so many things I want to tell her but I want to be certain she sees it, so I’m not wondering about that forever.

A birth mother adds a hopeful and realistic note – A lot can change in 15 years. She might really want to be reunited right now but life keeps getting in the way. Or maybe she doesn’t want to burden you with her recent diagnosis.

Back Together Again

Image is not the people in today’s story from my all things adoption group –

When I was 6 weeks old, my biological mother abandoned me. My grandparents got guardianship of me and ended up adopting me when I was 6. My biological mother, that same year, gave birth to my brother. She and his father end up abusing him, so my grandparents become his legal guardians. Unfortunately, my grandparents chose not keep us together and so adopted him out. The family he was adopted into could not have kids at the time he was adopted but then, later on they ended up actually having 4 biological kids of their own.

The adoptive family were racist people ! They abused him mentally, financially, and physically. They had cut all ties with me, claiming I was a bad influence because I would call him my brother, which was confusing their other kids. Fast forward, when he was 13-14 years old, they locked him out of the house due to a physical altercation. His adoptive mother claimed he was the cause it happened but the only person that was beaten up was him. He was told to “go find a new family, that he was not wanted anymore”.

The first person he called was me ! My grandma and I drove for 10 hours overnight. We contacted a lawyer and went to see him (he was at a friend’s). That started a long, hard, 3 year battle in court to get him away from them.

This situation really shined a light for me on how messed up the system is ! I’m happy to say my grandparents won ! We all won !! Today marks the 2 year anniversary of us becoming brother and sister legally again !! I am happy to say he is thriving since getting away from those people. Our bond throughout the years never wavered !

Abandoned in a Cardboard Box

In looking for an image to illustrate today’s story, I was surprised at how common it actually is for parents to use a cardboard box as a bassinet. The story I read in LINK>The Huffington Post isn’t actually about this. The story by Shari Leid is titled – “I Was Found Abandoned In A Cardboard Box As A Baby. All My Life I’ve Been Searching For The Truth About Who I Am.” The subtitle is – “Now a mother myself, I often think about the emotions that must have swirled within my birth mother during her pregnancy.”

She writes – In the bustling streets of Seoul, South Korea, my life began at Chapter 2 with a cardboard box in a nondescript parking lot. There was no Chapter 1; the scant police, hospital and orphanage records offer no clues about my birth name, birthplace, or birthdate. My birth story is shrouded in mystery. It was 1970, a time when adoption, especially international adoption, was navigated with less understanding than it is today. Concepts like the significance of bonding between a baby and its mother during the first year of life were not as widely recognized or prioritized.

She goes on to note – Attachment, the emotional bond between a child and their primary caregiver, is now known to play a pivotal role in shaping our relationships and emotional well-being. My early life was marked by a series of caregivers ― from a birth family to a police station to a hospital ward to an orphanage and finally to a foster home ― before being escorted to the United States by representatives of an adoption agency to meet my adoptive parents. This early experience laid the foundation for the complex web of attachment issues I would grapple with throughout my life.

Not for the first time have I read this from an adoptee – the school project that I hated the most was the Family Tree assignment. It was a stark reminder that I was like a grafted branch, awkwardly attached to a tree that wasn’t originally mine. And the thing with grafts is, they don’t always take ― sometimes they stick out, not quite blending in, or they might not even survive if they don’t heal right.

She relates the effects of her attachment issues – In those tricky teen years and my early 20s, I struggled with trust in my relationships. I was continually searching for assurance, for tangible signs that the people in my life would remain steadfast, that our connections would endure the inevitable storms. Looking back, I recognize this was a dance with fear ― the fear of being forgotten, of being alone. Unintentionally, I placed those around me under the microscope of my insecurities, seeking constant validation of their affection and commitment.

Then she describes how becoming a mother affected her – Now a mother myself, having experienced the profound journey of pregnancy and childbirth, I often think about the emotions that must have swirled within my birth mother during her pregnancy. I can’t help but wonder whether she, too, grappled with a sense of emotional detachment ― an act of self-preservation, knowing she couldn’t keep me — and if she transferred those feelings of detachment and anxiety to her unborn child.

She notes that there is a profound power in having a birth narrative. Hers came by way of a psychic at a friend’s party. She was given the gift of a reimagined beginning. It is interesting that after marriage, she and her husband adopted a girl from China only to discover that this woman was already pregnant. This happens more often than you might think (an adoption brings with it a pregnancy). Her son was born a mere seven months after they returned from China.

She notes – We adoptees are not just the sum of our adopted family; we are the continuation of a history, the carriers of genetics, and the embodiment of potential that stretches back beyond our memory. Our birth families, with all their mysteries and absences, are still a vital piece of our identity, a narrative thread that is ours to weave into the story of our lives.

There is a lot of attention to Korean adoptee stories these days – 112,000 Korean children were adopted by US citizens over the last 60 years. The story author writes – In 2020, the South Korean National Police Agency began offering a service to overseas adoptees of Korean descent that provides a way for us to submit our DNA and register it with foreign diplomatic offices, in the hopes of reconnecting with our biological families. I provided my DNA sample, but to this day, there has been no match.

Abandonment Nightmares

It does not surprise me that some adoptees have nightmares related to abandonment. Here’s one –

I finally realized today why I have separation anxiety, why I do all the things I do. I was told around 4 years old I was adopted because my family didn’t want to take care of me, and that my adoptive parents stepped in and wanted to.

I started have extreme nightmares about being abandoned around 4-5, right after my adoptive parents told me I was adopted. They made me feel as though my biological mother didn’t want me, and that I should be grateful that they wanted me.

It finally clicked tonight. My nightmares started after I was told. I dreamed catastrophe was coming and my adoptive parents would yell “You’re on your own now” as they ran off to save themselves. Only reason it clicked was because my nightmares are back. I also started having extreme sleep issues around 4-5 years old.

I found an article about LINK>What is Abandonment? by Michael Hallett. He notes that “Some people are unfortunate enough to lose the support of a parent or significant other, often during childhood, creating feelings of abandonment” which certainly fits the experience of many adoptees. He goes on to elaborate – “Emotional abandonment is a subjective emotional state in which people feel undesired, left behind, insecure, or discarded. People experiencing emotional abandonment may feel at a loss, cut off from a crucial source of sustenance that has been withdrawn, either suddenly, or through a process of erosion.” Which also fits the story shared above.

He goes on to suggest that there are five layers of trauma – Current Life, Generational, Community, Racial and Ancestral. He also notes that as we peel away the layers of the unconscious, we discover that abandonment can be caused by inherited traumas just as much as current-life events.

No real point other than, it does not surprise me and I’ve reflected on it quite a lot – especially as I have learned more about the adoption industry in general and listened to adoptee voices. My adoptee parents (both were adopted as toddlers) are deceased. Of course, I wish the details had emerged when they were yet alive. I wish I could have the deep conversations with them about their feelings related to having been adopted. Now, I can only listen to current day adult adoptees and contemplate what might or might not relate to my knowledge and understanding of my own parents during the time they were still present in my life.

You can read more about Michael Hallett and his interest in the topic at LINK>About.