This is the beginning of a series talking about the emotions that an adoptee may feel in the beginning of the search to the reunion. I am not saying that every adoptee will experience these feelings.

Happiness for some adoptees can be found through reunions with their birth families. An adoptee may go in with the hope of learning answers to so many questions and find out so much more. Some adoptees click right away with their birth families, while other adoptees struggle and have to work at the relationship for it to be successful.

Finding your birth family after searching will be a very happy occasion. Most adoptees spend a large amount of time searching and hoping to find their birth families. All adoptees go into a reunion with hopes of a happy reunion.

Adoptees should not go into a reunion thinking that it will be some magical fairy tale ending, and they should take things slow in the beginning. This can be an easy way to set the reunion up for failure before you ever give it a chance. It is easier to deal with things, when they are going better than you planned. It is much harder to recover when things or people do not live up to the fairy tales.

Even adoptees that come from a troubled beginning can have a happy successful reunion. It may take some hard work on both sides but it can be done. The most important thing for reunion is not having too many expectations and setting boundaries on each side.

Some adoptees can find great joy and happiness, when they are learning about their birth siblings. This can be a whole other aspect of reunion that an adoptee did not plan for. Remember relationships are built over a period of time, and they require work.

Related articles at adopting.org:

ADOPTION REUNION A SUCCESS STORY

An Adoptee's Journey