A Secret Heritage
~ An "Adopted" Experience~
" In all of us there is a hunger, marrow deep, to know our heritage,
to know
who we are and where we have come from. Without this enriching
knowledge,
there is a hollow yearning. No matter what our attainments in
life, there
is a vacuum and emptiness and a most disquieting loneliness."
-Alex Haley
|
I was
born on April 20, 1967, and thus began my adoption experience. My
adoption was handled privately. I was told of my adoption right
from the beginning and was given a book to read about adoption by my parents.
Many other young adoptees have been given this same book over the years.
The book was entitled "The
Chosen Baby".
At the time of my
birth, I was given a very generic identity. I was simply known as
"Baby Girl Johnson", which was later changed to "Baby Girl Hart" and then
chaged again to to the name that my parents gave me. But as anyone
who has been touched by adoption knows, the adoption process strips the
adoptee of their "original identity" and gives them an "adopted identity".
The adoptee has to fight long, tiresome and frustrating battles to obtain
bits and pieces of their genological heritage that so many take for granted,
in hopes of discovering their complete identity. Sometimes the adoptee
will find the answers they are searching for...and sometimes their heritage
remains a secret. Astonishingly enough, current laws do not support
the adoptee's search for identifying information about themselves.
In May, 1998, I had an opportunity to travel to where
my birth-mother lives and I made arrangements to meet her on May 21, 1998.
Together, we met along with her husband for about thirty minutes.
We ended our meeting with her wishing me and my children, her only child
and only grandchildren, well and she told me to "get on with my life" as
she had "closed that chapter of her life and didn't see the need for future
contact".
I have since become a co-founder of a local group called
A.W.A.R.E.
- Alabamians Working For Adoption Reform and Education.
Currently, AWARE which is a grassroots effort, has been working extremely
hard towards ending the civil rights violations that are occuring
against adult adoptees within the State of Alabama. Prior to
1991, an adult adoptee who was born in the State of Alabama had access
to their original birth certificate and their entire adoption file.
However, in 1990, the entire adoption code was re-written and it was at
that time that all adoption records were sealed from the adult adoptee
including their own original, unamended birth certificate. No other
citizen of the United States is denied access to his or her own original
birth certificate. Denying access to ones own birth certificate is
a unique and violating practice that only applies to adoptees. This
violation of our civil rights must end!
As you can see at the top of my web page, AWARE was
successful in convincing the Alabama Legislature that the civil rights
violations of Alabama adult adoptees must end. Alabama's laws now
allow adult adoptees to obtain a copy of their original birth certificate
as well as any other accompanying documents that are contained in the files
housed at the Alabama Center for Health Statistics. The new law goes
further and allows birth parents to place a contact preference form as
well as an updated medical history in the file which contains the adoptee's
original birth certificate. To find out how you can obtain your original
birth certificate or how to file a contact preference form with the Alabama
Center for Health Statistics, click
here to go to their web site or email Assistant Director, Reginald
Strickland.
|
Not to know what happened before we were
born is to remain perpetually a child; For what is the worth of a human
life unless it is woven into the lives of our ancestors in the record of
history.
Cicero, 106 - 43 b.c.
|
|
|
"He who lives with untruth lives in spiritual slavery. Freedom
is still the bonus we receive for knowing the truth". - Martin Luther
King, Jr., 1967
LINKS
|