Memories

18th July 2010 

I first started a journal back in September 2004 and several weeks after finding my son.  I had stated posting on an adoption forum when someone suggested doing so as a way to help myself cope.  Up until I found my son, I had been silent, not even talking to my husband about him.  It had been my sister who had told my husband about my son about six months after we had married.

My adoption journey had started back in 1981 when my son was born on the 3rd August.  I had split from his father soon after I fell pregnant and didn’t tell him when I found out.  It was wrong not to.  I was angry and didn’t want him to have anything to do with my baby nor did I think he would believe that the baby was his.  However, I wanted to raise my son so kept quiet long enough not to be pressured into aborting by my parents.  They had done this to my sister when she was 15 and had fallen pregnant.  She and her boyfriend who was working wanted to raise their baby, but it wasn’t to be.

When my parents found out they were so angry and decided my baby was to be adopted.  They arranged everything despite me not agreeing to it and refusing to talk about it.  The first time I saw a social worker from the adoption agency was after my son was born.  I told her how I felt, and she told me she would put a halt to the adoption.  This didn’t happen and between her and my parents they constantly lied to me.  I believed the lies, didn’t know my rights, didn’t see any paperwork and it is questionable I signed anything, so I was a complete walkover.

I was expected to get on with my life, never talk about my son and to forget about him.  I got on with my life, didn’t talk about my son but I never forgot about him.  Subsequently I suffer with depression to the point of being suicidal at times and self-harmed.

It was a shock when I found my son in 2004 days after his 23rd birthday on Genes Reunited.  It turned out he had been searching for me for five years and had found my family quite quickly.  They never told me, nor did they ever tell him where I was.  I was so angry at the time although I didn’t let him know that.  It was a few weeks before I let my parents know I had found my son.  Their excuse for not telling me about contact was that they didn’t know if my husband knew about him.  All I could assume was either they were telling the truth, or they did know what my sister had done.  I didn’t want this to get the better of me so left it at that.

However, with reunion my emotions exploded to the surface, and I found it hard to cope.  So, when the suggestion of keeping a journal was given, I jumped at it.  I had been silent for 23 years and now it was my time to talk even if it was by the written word.  I started a journal on the forums I belonged to at that time as I wanted to share my feelings.