For all people who have been adopted, there always seems to be that overarching question, “Why was I placed for adoption?” Often, there is a sense of loss of identity and a need to know about their heritage and their biological parents. These feelings haunted Robin Shaffer.
Robin was born in an Indianapolis hospital over 40 years ago. At birth, she was placed in foster care and then adopted by her foster parents. It was a closed adoption and the only information Robin knows about her biological mother is that she was 19 or 20 at the time of her birth and received some counseling for a short period of time. Robin is biracial and knows that her mother is Caucasian and her father is Afro-American.
Robin, now forty and a mother of three, hopes to get her questions about her biological family answered. She would also like the opportunity for her children to meet their grandmother. Robin told WTHR News, “I’ve always felt like a part of me wasn’t there. My biggest thing is on my birthday, if she ever thinks of me.”
Indiana will be opening up closed adoption records next year and with biological parent approval, information will be available for adopted children, but Robin is hoping to find answers sooner than that. Robin is sharing her story on social media in hopes that someone will see her information online and will help her get linked to her biological family.
It can be an overwhelming process for someone like Robin trying to find information about their biological family. It can also be exciting, as many people who have been adopted just want to see what physical characteristics they have from their biological parents. Do they have biological siblings? What is their medical background? But it can also be scary. Will their biological family even want contact with them?
For most, including Robin, hoping to find that family information and personal closure about their identity is worth the risk.
