[Continued from HERE.]

As I am always quite gung-ho when I start something new, I read the findings and/or synopsis of the findings of hundreds of studies of adoptee behavior and psychology. I pin-pointed forty-five that were focused specifically on comparing the psychological profile, adaptation and behavior of adoptees and non-adoptees. All of the relevant studies I included were concerned with adolescents and adults, although some of them were long-term studies and started when the participants were not yet teens.

There were even a couple of studies about... more

[Continued from HERE.]

Feeling better about the term ‘issue’ having been clarified, I magically separated Jan’s big list into what to me were its two parts, with a sprinkle of star-dust and a click of my heals. (I recently saw the Wizard of Oz for the first time in over twenty years… please forgive my Oz-esque digression, but I just can’t seem to contain myself. I’m even wearing my ruby flip-flops for the occasion.)

Here are the two groupings that emerged:

PROBLEMS 1. Connecting to others being harder to do for... more

Some of you may have read the blog posts I wrote exploring the perceived "issues" that are adoptee-specific. My point was, generally, that there are few issues that are really, at their core, about being adopted. I went through every issue I have ever heard related to being adopted and spouted off (as I am wont to do) trying to figure out if these things were really unique to adoptees or may be concerns for anybody.

Without exception, my logic (and experience) took me to the fact that these issues are for everyone to share. I was convinced that adoptees do not have a corner on most issue markets, from angst and anger at those that raised them, to difficulty in relationships and... more

[Continued from HERE.]

Unlike the era of Swift and his Gulliver, we are alive in a century where exists miraculous communication technology that has shrunk the globe and created torrential rivers of information never before attainable without many years, much money and endless effort. Unfortunately, the information has not yet been harnessed to banish ignorance and the resultant ‘isms’ it creates (racism,... more

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The issues three hundred years ago and the issues faced today have different veneers but the same old essential, "human nature" tag for behavior that is really sub-human. It’s sometimes even sub-animal. Animal behavior tends to be logical, as it is all about survival not greed, ego and judgment. Our behavior around the world today is truly Yahoo. Poor Gulliver. He knew it, even in 1714.

To... more

I just finished reading the classic, Gulliver’s Travels. I am not sure why I hadn’t ever got to this brilliant book before, but now that I have read it, better late than never definitely seems to apply. I found it as thoroughly engrossing a satire as has ever been written. Thoroughly engrossing, and equally disturbing.

This is a book written in Ireland circa the early 1700’s. In his magnificent and perhaps mischievous races, with sometimes-bovine faces, Jonathan Swift was poking his... more

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And now, for the final five countdown to the Number 1 Reason I am Happy I Was Adopted:

Number 5:

Whether war orphans in Sudan or parents whose children were abducted by the LRA in Uganda, having been an "orphan" for a bit after birth and being raised by parents that were not my birth parents often endeared me to those with whom I was working. It created common ground and helped me to earn... more

In a ever-so-slight (and not nearly as funny) homage to the David Letterman Top Ten list, I offer you today my Top 10 Reasons Why I Am Happy (or at least not unhappy) I Was Adopted.

Number 10:

A bargain at any price, I was… um, no, not CHEAP, a BARGAIN! This was good leverage, on occasion, when trying to fanangle some pocket money. Upon parental resistance, I might, given the right circumstances, come out with "but A and G [my sisters] cost at least DOUBLE what I did, not to mention the... more

I finally told my Mom the other day about my writing this blog for Adoption.com. She quickly passed the word on to my sisters and father even before I could click my heals together and say, "There's no place like home." There's also no grapevine in the world as effective as that of my mother!

I wasn’t sure I wanted to tell my family about my blog as I suspected there were some things I would have been willing to write about under the anonymity of my pseudonym that I wouldn’t necessarily want my family to know. Try... more

[Continued from HERE.] From my point of view, the need for unhappy adoptees to believe that happy adoptees will someday be just as miserable as they are about being adopted is yet one more indicator of the “human” part of human nature. It is the same part that causes those who are quite devout in their religion to be dismissive of anyone else that is equally devout but to a different religion,... more