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Hello everyone,
I feel fortunate to have found your forum. I have known for much of my life I was adopted. However, the circumstances of my adoption has made me hesitant to contact my birth mother or her family. I just recently found out that my birth mother died a few years ago. In my adoptive mother's old house, I found my adoption certificate and other information which led me to look into my birth mother's location as well as who her family is. My adoptive mother died in 1999 and only recently have I really tried to find out more information about my adoption. To cut a long story short, I was a child born of an interracial relationship in Louisiana in 1973. My adoptive mother explained to me years ago that during that time period in Louisiana interracial relationships were frowned upon. I was raised by a black family and my birth mother is white and my birth father is black. I was raised as a black child (albeit light-skinned) and I was given to the family that raised me after birth because my birth mother's family did not want a mixed race child. My adoptive parents explained this to me in detail and hated that the situation was like that then. It's disheartening but that is the way it was. I am 45 years old now and have not thought much about my birth mother until the past year.
I know who the birth family is and who my birth relatives are after doing research. I found that I have a sister as well. But how do I approach this? If my birth family was racist (as my adoptive mother explained) is it worth contacting anyone from my birth family? I can continue to live my life as is without a reunion. But it does bother me that if I tried to contact my birth mother years ago that she and her family may have rejected me because of the racial element and prejudice that might be involved.
Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks.
Last update on December 10, 2:33 pm by JD Cole.
Hi JD,
My adoption story is similar, but my birth father is Puerto Rican, and I was born in 1981.
I’m actually trying to contact my BM.
You should reach out to your sister, she deserves to know you.
Hopefully, your sister is much more open than the other relatives!
Hello everyone,
I feel fortunate to have found your forum. I have known for much of my life I was adopted. However, the circumstances of my adoption has made me hesitant to contact my birth mother or her family. I just recently found out that my birth mother died a few years ago. In my adoptive mother's old house, I found my adoption certificate and other information which led me to look into my birth mother's location as well as who her family is. My adoptive mother died in 1999 and only recently have I really tried to find out more information about my adoption. To cut a long story short, I was a child born of an interracial relationship in Louisiana in 1973. My adoptive mother explained to me years ago that during that time period in Louisiana interracial relationships were frowned upon. I was raised by a black family and my birth mother is white and my birth father is black. I was raised as a black child (albeit light-skinned) and I was given to the family that raised me after birth because my birth mother's family did not want a mixed race child. My adoptive parents explained this to me in detail and hated that the situation was like that then. It's disheartening but that is the way it was. I am 45 years old now and have not thought much about my birth mother until the past year.
I know who the birth family is and who my birth relatives are after doing research. I found that I have a sister as well. But how do I approach this? If my birth family was racist (as my adoptive mother explained) is it worth contacting anyone from my birth family? I can continue to live my life as is without a reunion. But it does bother me that if I tried to contact my birth mother years ago that she and her family may have rejected me because of the racial element and prejudice that might be involved.
Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks.
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