Friday, April 28, 2006

AMY ADOPTEE - MY STORY PART ONE

My name is Amy. I was born in Indianapolis, Indiana on July 30, 1965. I was due in August but I came into the world early. I was born in Marion County hospital. One of the people I contacted called it City Hospital. That hospital is now called Wishard. I was adopted through the Suemma Coleman Home for Unwed Mothers. It is now called St.Elizabeth Coleman Adoption Agency.

I was raised in Texas. I can't really remember when I was told that I was adopted. I also know that my mother really didn't want anyone knowing it. I guess I never really concentrated on that fact. I was just too busy being a kid. I had too much going on with family and friends. I was involved in Choir, reading books, going to school, and stuff that kids, adolescents, and teenagers normally concentrate on. When I was a young adult, I was too busy with friends, boyfriends, working, and going to college. I guess as an adult I just never thought about it. For me to think about it just accented my difference from everyone else. I just did not want to deal with that part of my life. Later I was just concerned with working or being in the United States Army. I had too many surface stuff to worry about than to dig below this surface and really understand that part of myself. In the last ten years or so, I began searching lightly. Just checking out registries. I always knew that I was different. I had very different views from my family. I had my strength in math and science that I used to help others with. I was always a t-shirt and jeans kinda girl. I never worried about my looks. I based my feelings on that Looks fade, brains don't. I still believe in that today. It always irritated me that I looked ten to fifteen years younger than I really was. In fact, I am still being carded to buy cigarettes or alcohol. I remember friends and boyfriends who were younger than me buying that kind of stuff and not getting carded. Here I am stuck with being carded. My mom always told me that I would appreciate when I was older. I am now forty and I still have to deal with it.

When I first got my non identifying information, I knew that I was a product of an affair. It was then I realized that it was an extra-marital affair. My birthfather had four children, three of which died at birth. It was stated as a rH factor type of thing. I was a medical laboratory specialist in the army. I was given an American Association of Blood Banks hand book. I knew that this wasn't true. Those children had no joints/limbs and were blind at birth. They had one child that was living at this point. I suspected that child was a girl. So I knew that I had an older sibling. I knew that my birthmother was allergic to milk, peas, fish, and animals. This was all on the forms sent to me via the Indiana Vital Statistics Department in Indianapolis. This was sent to me in 1997. I had called the agency back then. It would have cost me $250 then to open it up. I didn't have the money then. I was married with a new baby to worry about. It would have to wait.

Back in 2002, my father suffered a massive blow from a birth defect. He died two and half days later. It was then that my mother began pushing me to search. Do it now while you and her are both young enough to appreciate each other. So she too can know her grandchildren. She felt that I had the right to the information. She even searched some on her own. Heck it would have been better served if she was allowed to speak to my mother. Again don't misunderstand. I am grateful that Catrina contacted her. I just feel that I should have been the one to contact not a stranger to my family.

My mother has prodded me since my father's death. When I quit the posal service, I got back a majority of the money that I put into the retirement system. I went and got my computer system. I slowly began putting my name on every registry out there. We got one last payment of that money. I gave the adoption agency the money to make contact. Here begins the roller coaster ride. Tomorrow part two.

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