I was adopted at birth. I've always known. Until around 2 years ago, it was something that most people didn't know about me. It wasn't a secret, it just wasn't something that I wore like a badge. I can't tell you how many times someone said, "I didn't know you were adopted," almost like it should have been part of my introduction. "Hi, I'm Frances and I am adopted." In fact, if I think about the "words", I would was that I WAS adopted, not that I AM adopted.. It hasn't ever been a defining characteristic in my life.
The past two years have brought the fact that I am adopted to the forefront and for the first time in my life, it is something that I think about more than ever. In these times when the abortion debate seems to come up daily, I am more thankful than ever that I was given up for adoption and placed with my family. I have no doubts at all that my "placement" was divine. God had a plan. I was given to two people who wanted me more than anything. I had a large extended family who never treated me like I was adopted, I was just "Frances"...... or when I was little, "Frances Margie Piff", even "Punkin," to some.
Today, I know where I came from. I know where my biology came from. I have a relationship with my birth mother and I know who my birth father is. Growing up an only child, I now know that I have 5 siblings. Most of this has been easy. Some hasn't. Rejection is never easy and my birth father and one sister have chosen not to know me. Ironically, the one thing that I always wondered about was who I looked like, and I don't really look like any one person.
My adoption has been a journey, and, to be honest, it continues to be. My relationships with my birth mother, siblings and new aunts, uncles and cousins are amazing. I remain hopeful that my birth father and his daughter will come around. And, most importantly, I still thank God for the family that He gave me. They were a blessing to my life..
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