Where Is Home Now? (Part Two)
A quick refresh – both of my parents are no longer on this Earth. My Dad just passed late this summer 2018 (my Mom when I was 21) and the void felt like it could have been more immense for me than for others. Maybe it was? You may say, “Yeah, right. Everyone who loses a parent feels the heartbreaking loss.” Yes, this is true. My statement stems from more.
Cut to the chase. If you didn’t already know, I’m adopted. I’ve always known. I was very young when my adoptive mother told me I was a chosen one. A gift from God who’d answered her prayers for a baby whom had her and my adoptive father’s ethnicity. They waited 10 years for me. My adoptive parent’s were married at 19 years old. My Dad met my Mom while he was stationed in the Philippines while in the Navy. They couldn’t have children of their own.
As I write my latest work, Pieces in the Swell, where a portion of the plot is about my protagonist’s journey searching for her birth parents, I came to actually searching for my own. I want to write to the reality of the feelings, emotions and mystery of it all.
Some interesting things have happened since my 1st post on Where Is Home Now?I’ve since taken 23andMe and Ancestry DNA tests and found cousins!
Where I stated I felt like I had no home, now I feel I belong somewhere and that I’m actually made up of what my parents told me I was…Native American and Filipino – just as they are. You may say, well why would they have lied to you? It’s not them, it’s the adoption agency. Some shady shit went down in the early 70’s and who knows what social workers or agency workers would say to get rid of babies.
The relief was real. The sense of belonging and having real blood family has been overwhelming. Without going into detail I come from a very interesting family with an amazing story. I feel so lucky to have two family histories that are filled with so much historical relevance on my British/Irish and Native American sides (I’ll share more on this in the future).
In closing…I’ve been talking with my cousins. One of which is, ironically, a geneticist at UCLA! What are the odds? My family tree is GNARLY and what a gift. I can’t tell you how giddy I am about the whole thing, no matter the outcome.
The adventure continues and I’ll leave you with a portion of the last communication from my cousin – I’m paraphrasing here: ‘Here’s some speculative information, if your birth mother is XXX, she is deceased. If your birth mother is XXX, she left her family to join a cult in the desert.’ Woah.
Stay tuned!
Xxx – Ann Marie
