Adoption Records Opened in Ontario

Finally. As of June 1, 2009 if you were adopted in Ontario – or if your child was placed for adoption – you can receive information from your birth and adoption records through Service Ontario.
Prior to locating my birth parents the only information I had was the initial of my birth surname, my first name [...]

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Ten Confessions of an Adoptee

I often wonder how different I would have turned out had I been raised by my birth parents
I often think my birth parents are still hiding some information regarding my birth from me
My adoptive parents are my parents and it [...]

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Ten Confessions of a Hopeful Adoptive Parent

I am worried my husband and I will never be chosen to privately adopt
Just when I think I know everything there is to know about adoption I find out I don’t
The first time we heard about open adoption it scared [...]

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The Confusion and Guilt of Being a Sister by Birth

My first face-to-face meeting with my half-birth-sister on my birth-father’s side was when she was fifteen years old. She was full of attitude and spunk and my initial impression upon seeing her was that she is very pretty, has nice long legs (must be from her mother’s side) and that she looked like a nice [...]

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I’m a Person, Not a Material Object.

I have a friend who was adopted at birth through a closed private adoption. She has always known she was adopted and recently when she asked her adoptive mother about how soon her mom felt a bond between them her adoptive mother answered immediately. My friend was touched, however it was what her adoptive mother [...]

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Unsuspecting Twins Marry – Another Reason Open Adoption is a Good Thing

There are many downsides to closed adoptions, but the recent story of twins unwittingly marrying one another because they didn’t know they were siblings (read story here) is definitely a strong argument in favour of open adoption. Some people may laugh at the twins’ misfortune, but as an adoptee of a closed adoption I empathize. [...]

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The sad side of adoption.

Over the holiday season I witnessed many friends and colleagues celebrating their first Christmases with their new sons or daughters. It was a special time for them filled with many family, friends and copious posing with babies for pictures. It struck me then that I spent my first Christmas on earth alone. For reasons I [...]

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Is it Ironic?

The one thing that makes an adopted child different from other children is that an adopted child, such as me, knows (or should know) they are adopted. They know someone other than their parents gave them life (and for all intents and purposes my adoptive parents are my parents, after all I grew up calling [...]

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Who do I Look Like?

I found my birth father and I found my birth mother. As an adoptee of a closed adoption, I was so happy to just to know my birth mother. And once the moment of surprise at finding her had passed, I could hardly wait to receive pictures from her. I could hardly wait to see [...]

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It takes a whole village to raise a child

There seems to be a lot of controversy around adoption. Here is what I think: when done right and for the right reasons adoption can be a wonderful thing, when done wrong adoption can emotionally tear someone apart and have perpetually negative consequences.
I am an adoptee. My adoption was public and closed. In recent years [...]

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