Published Tuesday October 27th, 2009 at 11:40pm
My name is Kathryn but everyone calls me Katie. I was born inWisconsin when my birth mother was 18. Ever since I was young, m y momwould tell me I was adopted. In third grade I talked to her aboutmeeting my birth mother and family. My mother said, "Well, you can lookat the pictures." I responded in a shocking way, saying, "No, I want tobe able to smell her, see where she lives. I want to be able to see herand my birth family face to face."
My mother thought about this and decided to be brave and contact mybirth mother. That summer we took a three-week trip to Wisconsin. Itwas a mother-daughter adventure and on the way we had lots of funtalking and laughing. Once we got there we checked into a hotel andthat same day my birth mother, Stacy, came to meet me. I was so excitedand nervous at the same time.
When I heard the knock at the door, my mom went to answer it and inwalked my birth mother. We all hugged and shook hands. We talked for abit, and then went out for dinner. We learned so much about each otherand how similar we were. We came up with a plan for the next day so Icould meet the rest of my birth family, all except my birth father.
My mother and I drove to my birth cousin's house where I would meeteveryone. As I looked around, I could see everyone looking at us.Smiles greeted both me and my mother. We ate, talked and took pictures.The next day I went to the zoo and had the time of my life. On the lastday my birth mother called my birth father and had him meet us at apark. I found out I have a half sister and a half brother.
When it was time to say good-bye, I was very sad but knew that eventhough I love my birth mother, I wouldn't want to live with her. Mymother lives in Belmont where my life is priceless, and I wouldn'texchange it for the world.
Now every other year my mother and I go to Wisconsin to visit mybirth family. It's a lot of fun and my mom doesn't regret having doneit. It has been a fantastic experience and I am so lucky to have beenable to do this. A lot of mothers are too scared to open up to thebirth mother and let their child meet their birth parents. And manycan't even look for their birth parents until they're 18.
If there are adoptive parents out there reading this, I would liketo tell them that you should let your children meet their birth familyif they want to and can. Yes, it is scary, but it is such anexperience. This should only happen when the child is old enough tounderstand. I went when I was in third grade. You'll end up connectingwith your adopted child even more.