Showing posts with label CHS. Show all posts
Showing posts with label CHS. Show all posts

Friday, October 18, 2013

Paperwork Schmaperwerk

It has been months I've made any brazen attempts at knowing this strange woman who quite possibly begrudgingly carried me in her warm womb, then in a matter of six short, but painful hours, squeezed me through her birth canal and then left my life forever. The paperwork I have on my birth which is completely compiled in one tight paragraph, did not detail the nuances of childbirth and pregnancy the way most loving mothers would recall having their first born child- splashed with descriptive actions like 'felt your little kicks" and, "rubbing my belly," and the word glisten was perfectly absent. There is a simple, almost polite, completely sterile, three sentence paragraph with not a single comma. Bland and nondescript- as if baby birthing in 1976 was equal to a one-liner joke told by a Rodney Dangerfield impersonator in a seedy off off Broadway flat in NY's finest shitty neighborhood. I don't get it. Not one iota of detail surrounding the birth of a human being except a scientific description of my twisted right foot, and a suggested path to correction. Wow. That is one great book to read- about as informative and interesting as reading a printer manual in Mandarin.

I guess this disgusting lack of description is particularly deflating to someone like me for selfish reasons. I like to describe things. Nothing makes me more happy than to accurately and intricately outline a story. I like to know the juice, drink the juice, be the juice. The nitty gritty intrigues my mind, and I get off on being understood and explaining things to the point of undeniability. And when it is finished, you'll know because you will want more- like now. Like exactly now.

Truth be told, all of this driving desire to reunite with these perfect strangers is a combo of selfish determination and self-unawareness- self being the key descriptor. It's just not right to want to invade someones privacy for senseless reasons that only pertain to myself. Devilishly transparent, even putrid you might be thinking. Either way, I will get to the bottom of this if I have to think this thing into the ground and later excavate it. I hate to say this will be the death of me because I am hoping and praying that breath will be spoken into this relationship, but I have somewhat prepared for a slam in the face heart-wrenching NO, which is really what I've already been dealing with I suppose. The fact that these long lost people of mine, well formerly mine, in utero only, have not responded to my oddball requests and multiple letters to my birth mother, each more forceful than its predecessor, the fact that they have not responded in any form or fashion reminds me of Dumb and Dumber when Lloyd was told that there was one in a million chances that he would have a chance with the girl, and he jumped up, clicking his heels, and said, "You mean there is a chance!" Actually, in the movie I don't recall any leprechaun heel clicking moves in that scene, but there could have been. My memory isn't as good as yours probably.

I have turned into Lloyd. Great. Despite the very real truth that I love Dumb and Dumber with all my heart and even have a VHS copy of it in case the DVD accidentally cracks, I do not insist on insulting my intelligence like that, but I prefer to see the humor in most things uncomfortable.

Lucky for me (and Lloyd) there is hope- that small sliver of detail that people often forget about when the going gets rough. I plan to rely on that and faith for the rest of my life, and until either of those run out, I know in my heart that I will be fine. Period.

I will continue the elusive chase I imagine, until I feel satisfied with one answer, or until I am completely pushed off the face of the earth- whichever comes first.

I like to keep the stalking fresh and switch it up every now and then. Occasionally, banging through the keyboard by means of a random message sent on Facebook, not surprising at all if you think about it, considering 100,000,000,000 (too many zeros) people are finely in-tune with it's feed and consider posting to it a daily ritual, myself included.  I have not picked up the phone to call my birth aunt though lately; Melody is her name- to announce to her family on what sounded like a 1987 Radio Shack answering machine that I have been looking for them for quite some time, and that I believe that we are related. No return call. Twice I called, twice left messages, the second more direct than the first and probably more insistent on a return call, which was not honored nor probably appreciated, based on the response I got- which was zip, zilch, and zero all combined into a whopping bag of nothing.

I have also written the birth mother one snail mail letter, and two separate emails. None returned, so that is a clear indicator that Mr.M Daemon did not get a hold of them. I also have bombarded her friend, and my former friend who has assimilated to the non-responsiveness that the rest of the family is taking up. She unknowingly released the privied information to the search angel, Debi, who ultimately found my birth mother for me, in a very closed, and very sealed adoption dating back to the seventies. I just aged myself, but for the sake of the storyline, which is really my life story unfolding as you see it here, I will take it like a champ. The friend who outed my birth mother, probably got a tongue lashing and a cold shoulder after that, which might assign some truth into the character of my birth mother and her unassuming family. Well I honestly don't believe she told any one in her family other than her sister, and parents who visited her while she was in the maternity home which was and still is located in Charlotte.

One day soon, I might have a visit to the Florence Crittenton Home for unwed mothers. I might just have a visit this weekend. I'll take my camera and upload some pics of the joint since no one thought it was appropriate back then when I was born. I guess instead of creating memories, the birth mothers wanted to shove the memory of birthing a baby and giving it away to complete strangers to raise is something that was not especially camera worthy, and not exactly fond, and probably something that kept resurfacing at odd times throughout the years creating much pain and undue suffering.

But I guess back then, the idea was to keep the privacy of the adoptive parents at the forefront, and the rights of the birth parents practically abolished like the detailed descriptions were of the births and what led up to the births. That would include any real life situations that could have been addressed without having to give up a child.  Maybe that is the truth. Maybe if those thoughts were revisited for too long, ideas would form that would lead to different outcomes and different lives, affecting the world in a much easier, digestible light. Maybe, just maybe I would not be sitting here right now, typing this.

I am very thankful for my family. Do not get it twisted. I am truly blessed, but with that blessing came a very real interest, inherited if you will, and born deep into my soul in finding my people. I think anyone who takes that for granted has no idea what it is like to be the one who doesn't.

If it happens that we meet, that we exchange some open communication, some rhetoric is dialed up, maybe even some real life interaction, I don't know what I should expect because I have already formed in my mind what it will look like when it happens. That is a probably one of the only private things about this story of mine that I have remained sealed about. That too, will be revealed, as more is revealed, an unveiling of a mystery. That mystery holds the key to me. And by God, I am determined to get to the bottom of it- even if the outcome is devastatingly unfavorable. I can assume closure, and this chapter will be no longer an anomaly in this life.

Friday, January 27, 2012

private email enclosed...

Last week, on Friday actually, I had this cockamamie idea to send an email to my BM. Not a good idea. I didn't do it. I was just feeling impulsive. And yesterday on WFAE 90.7 there was a show on the Diane Rhem show that my close friend Chad filled me in on. He knows all of the entailment's of my adoption and the whirlwind of emotion that accompany it. Because I only caught the tail end if it, I have been trying to find it since. The discussion was of the fairly newly adopted DNA testing and its prevalence in adoption with regard to finding the unknowns. As a result, I thought my friend over at the CHS, where I was adopted, the former adoption counselor, Karen, would be interested in hearing about it.
So I emailed her again. Although I know she is extremely busy in her new role in family finding, I have a feeling there are lots of adoptees who still make their way back to her inbox frequently. She was a post adoption counselor at the CHS for a number of years that I'm not aware of, but judging by her familiarity with the situational atmosphere which I'm assuming is pretty common amongst all of the adoptee stories, it was probably a good number of years. I think she might be in her late forties, early fifties. I'm guessing here. Whatever her age- I love this woman. She has been a blessing to me and my sanity. She has taken a number of hours to spend talking to me. I know that her workload is sizable, and she probably doesn't have time to talk to me for hours on end, to counsel me. But she does it anyway.
I thought I would share an email she sent to me this morning. Yes, I know this is private, and no I didn't ask her permission to publish it, but I feel that she wouldn't mind. In fact, I'd bet my paycheck that she wouldn't. I won't put her contact info. I have had a few people ask me privately the whole story on how this all got started, and Karen, I feel, is sort of at the center of it all. She works for the Children's Home Society where I, among thousands of other adoptees over the years, was adopted back in the seventies. She was not the original counselor, because I'm imagining she was only a teenager at the time. But she was/is my go-to person. This weekend, I plan on writing out the whole story, and scanning my birth documents. Actually, I might do this right now. Yes, yes I will. Just so you can have an idea of what we had to work with, what little we had to work with.

Hi Karen!


I bet you thought I forgot about you. I hope all is well with you. There is a great show on the Diane Rhem show on WFAE today that will be in the form of podcast later today that everyone over there might be interested in listening to, just in case you weren’t aware. It’s about the entailment's of adoption, and most all viewpoints were recognized. I only heard a sliver of it, but intend to hear the whole show later today or tomorrow.


I haven’t mailed anything yet. But I do have a letter written. I think she knows I’m looking for her because I think her best friend might have told her. She hasn’t responded to any of my texts lately- just after in December she mailed me some Swarovsky crystal earrings she handmade for me. Kind of odd, huh? But, I haven’t felt pressed to inquire further. Guess I’m nervous of what she has to say. Oh well. Tis the day.


I still think you’re great.



Brooke


Hi Brooke –


Good to hear from you.  I didn’t know about the show on Diane Rhem, but I love Diane & will try to catch this on podcast. 


It sounds like your birth mother may indeed have the head’s up about you searching.  I suggest that it’s time to move forward (if you’re ready).  I encourage you to let her friend know you plan to contact your birth mother by letter, and then send the letter.  This will give her support system some notice and ability to respond.  I can’t stress enough how important it is for the letter to be kind and non-blaming, and also clear on what you want from her – health information, a photo, family history information, to have the opportunity to meet one day, whatever it is you would like to have happen.  It’s important for a birth parent to know that their child is okay, and that she had some of the things the birth mother hoped for her baby (good parents, stable family, opportunities) when she made the plan of adoption.  And then be prepared to wait a long time.  It may not be a long time, it may be that you get a reply immediately, but more than likely, she will need time to process this, and it can take as long as it takes.  If you can, keep going to group in the mean time.  Valentine’s day is coming up; this may be a good time to let her know she’s been on your mind and in your heart for many years.


Good luck with this, and please let me know how you decide to proceed and what happens.

Best,

Karen


For those of you thinking about sending a letter, please take into careful consideration what  Karen said. I have, and I think I will take her advice and after I rewrite the letter, because I might have been a little too scaly, I will drop it in the mail, and let her friend know to be on the lookout for Colette's call.

Vital records

Vital records