[SchmennaLeigh]

EXCLUDING YOUR OWN ADOPTION (be you an adoptive parent, a birthparent or an adoptee), are there other adoptions within your family? Have relatives adopted? Is someone a birthparent? Is someone an adoptee? Have you always known about this situation in your family or was it revealed to you after your own adoption situation began or occured? Did it happen after your adoption situation occured? Were you possibly a catalyst in the adoption process?

Just curious.

[Mommy24]

Hey Jenna, great thread. I have a cousin who is adopted, an uncle through marriage who is adopted and an aunt who is a Birthmom. I was only 12 when she placed her son for adoption. I remember so well having said something like "I could never give my baby up for adoption" Oh how I have been haunted by those words in the last 16 yrs....I have since talked with her about how I felt when she placed and even apologized once I realized (obviously by learning the hard way)how hard that decision was for her emotionally and physically.

[lahdh4]

From doing family research there are 2 adoptions on my mother's side and 1 on my fathers side.
B has a brother who was adopted & B's stepfather was adopted. Then there is my brother and SIL, who are birthparents to a teenager.

[taramayrn]

Both of my great aunts are birthmothers, one in reunion with her son. The other hasn't EVER talked about it and her children don't know about her daughter. My cousin is also a birthmother in reunion with her daughter. As far as I know that's it.

[Tigger27]

Besides my own experience with adoption and being a birthmom, my sister is also a birthmom. She placed a son who turned 21 this past February in a closed adoption when she was 18. We don't know anything right now about him, but I'm hoping that maybe one day we'll get a chance to know the son my sister placed.

Also one of my aunts is a birthmom who placed a son in a closed adoption and is now in reunion with him. Also some of my cousins were adopted. That's all I know about my family connection to adoption so far lol .

[scarlet52698]

My mother in law is adopted, my cousin is adopted, my amother placed a child for adoption.......hmmmm that's just my immediate family.

I've had several adopted friends over the years too.

[Maggie Beth]

Three cousins were adopted. Two are in reunion with their birthfamilies. They were adopted in the late 1960s from a Native American tribe in the Northern U.S. and have both reclaimed their tribal membership. The other cousin was adopted by my uncle (step-parent adoption).

[boo20030]

Yes I was touched by an adoption other than my own. My Dad is a b-dad to my half sister, she was born befor my Mom & Dad married and I never knew she even existed until she started her own search about 9 years ago. My Dad came by my house one day and asked me if I would like to have another sister!!!! lol I already had 2 so I told him no I want a baby brother LOL!!!! It has benn kinda rocky as she has way different beliefs than we do but... she and Dad keep in touch and that seems to be enough for her and for him as well.

[FauxClaud]

To my knowledge, no one in my family ever lost a child to adoption, nor was anyone adopted either. So I would say that I was the mold breaker/ black sheep who let adoption into the fold.
Once was enough, though..and if I have my druthers, it is NOT ever happening again.

Though I did end up marrying an adoptee "lite".(I still answered no though)..thought his stepfather was his father and found out as a teen that it was all lies. Difficult reunion with his paternal bio side..so he brings that baggage to our table.

[coco46]

My half-brother was born and raised in Germany, and is still there. He was not really "formally recognized" by my dad when he was young, and was adopted later by his mom's husband, as far as I can make out (please remember I speak no German and his English is limited ).

I just sent him some pictures of Bean via e-mail. His reply was short (obviously) but he seems so happy for us. He also has 2 daughters that I hope to introduce to Bean someday.

I'm glad we found one another.

[happygmom]

We have birth parents, adoptees, and adoptive parents. We have international, domestic, relative, step-parent, and closed adoptions. The adoptee and adoptive parent parties are blissfully happy. The birth parent experiences (closed, forced adoption era) are onging, crippling tragedies which have caused fractured family relationships. Hence, my ambivalence about adoption .

Happy G'Ma

[michellemartin]

I put no, BUT my stepbrother has 5 kids, all removed and most already in adoptive homes. I voted for no because I have not seen them in YEARS! Years and years, since before the first time they were removed from the home. Pretty much my whole family does not have contact with this particular guy or anyone he comes in contact with. My step dad tried to be there for the grandkids, but just coulndt anymore a few years back. (this is not the stepbrother that lived with me for a while).

[bromanchik]

No adoption except for a distant cousin that adopted from Korea around the same time I placed Matt.

There is, however, a long line of "unwed" pregnancies/shotgun weddings. Both my grandmothers, an aunt and a great-great aunt who gave birth to my grandfather, but the birth certificate was forged to look like it was my great-grandma that gave birth. Appearently we are a group of women with high libidos. How ould I not get pregnant? I was hit from both sides of the family....

[bmomliz16]

I have an adopted cousin, she's only 12. My husband just found out last year that his father is a bfather to a son, so he has an adopted half-brother out there somewhere. That really, really threw him for a loop. But no one in the family will give up any information, so, unfortunately, he'll probably never look for his half-brother. Then there's me, bmom. But also, a lot of teen pregnancy and shotgun weddings in the family (my mom was only 15).

[MMC66]

My fathers sister adopted two AA babies in the 70s (pretty rare at the time) so I have two first cousins who are adopted.