[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 adoptees;
2. More sensitivity to loss;
3. Difficulty trusting;
4. Feelings of betrayal;
5. Identity issues.

TOPICS
1. Inability to access birth information;
2. Wanting/desire to know one’s life story/ Curiosity about one’s roots/ Wanting to know who and why one exists on the planet;
3. Medical history;
4. Not knowing/growing with biologically connected siblings.

Considering the first list, that of PROBLEMS, I thought I would stick to my original premise that these kinds of issues can and do exist for anyone, perhaps everyone on some level, whether adopted or not. While Jan conceded that some things on the list are also issues for non-adoptees, she said she believes that they are more common for adoptees.

Even though I am adopted, I am not an expert on adoption and have not made it my life’s focus to study and compare adoptees to non-adoptees. I read back over Jan’s rationale for each issue and it seemed as though she was basing her opinions on the anecdotal experiences of those attached to her adoption Velcro and not so much on any sort of non-biased research (though I could be wrong on that.) I also realized I was doing the same. Jan and I both have our personal stake in this particular topic and so neither of us are really objective sources of information.

I wondered what that quirky little group of allegedly objective, unbiased researchers and scientists, the 'experts,' had discovered in this area.

Curiosity piqued, I got out my Google again and did some research on the studies that have been done for the past forty years comparing adoptee psychology and behavior to that of people who were biologically brought into their families.

[Continued]