[Continued from HERE.]

I knew to expect mostly negative attitudes towards adoption from adoptees posting on the Internet. I knew there were many injured souls out there using the cyber-ether as an opportunity for catharsis and finding a support network of others with similar experiences and equally funky-fresh-fly pseudonyms. I think writing is a great way to let go of the things that have hurt us, to express feelings that don’t roll off the tongue the way they do off the fingertips. Many of the blogs I read had this element to them… except for the letting go bit. (More on that later.)

After reading a plethora of blogs, I can understand why Jan and others believe there are issues that are specifically related to adoption. As we had separated the two types of issues, "topics" and "problems" into separate categories, it was more clear which bits of blog anger and angst were related directly to adoption and which bits would have probably existed even if the blogger had not been adopted. It also became clear how the former metamorphisized into the latter. In other words, I found the missing link between issues … and issues. Well, at least I think I did. Of course, a good detective has to figure SOMETHING out, isn’t it?

The topics in our list were very much on the minds of all of the bloggers: wanting to know one’s background, legal issues about getting birth information/certificates, medical history and access to all of these things. Race was a big topic with transracial/international adoptees, although in much the same way it is a topic for many "minority" and mixed-race non-adopted people. Then there was a topic that is definitely unique to adoptees but was not specifically included on our list. It is in many ways the mother of all topics for adoptees: search/reunion. I believe that this is also the starting ground from which the leaps between adoptee-specific topics and universal problems attributed to adoption are made.

[Continued. Next blog: When topics turn into problems.}