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Showing posts from 2019

While You Wait For Your DNA Results (Things Adoptees Can Do!)

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If you have taken advantage of the Black Friday or Cyber Monday DNA sales, like many others do to give as gifts to yourself or others over the holidays, it can be difficult to wait for the results to appear. In this video, I give you some "to dos" for you while you wait for your DNA results. One thing I did not mention in the video is that it's important to get some support in place as you prepare to review your DNA results. This video is geared toward domestic (U.S.) adoptees. If you are an international adoptee or have a recent immigrant parent (as I do) or parents that were born and living in another country at the time of your conception, your situation is a little more complicated. I will do a follow-up video for people in this situation. Here is the Closed Facebook group, Genetic Genealogy for Adoptees , if you would like to find support and ask questions about your specific adoption or DNA results.

The Latest Breakthrough on My Birth Father Search

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by Lynn Grubb musings about adoption and searching since 2005 It's been a year since my last update, with a big disappointment on a lead the search team was following closely for some time.  You can read about that at my blog titled, " Back on the Birth Father Rollercoaster Awaiting DNA Results. ". Some of you may not know, but my search for my birth father was THE THING that inspired me to begin this blog that you are reading today.  I wanted a place to document the search as it unfolded. My search blogs are not my most popular; however, one day I hope to turn them into a book, if/when this winding road ever leads to an actual live human being. It was Christmas 2012 and I was asked to read and review a book for Lost Daughters .  It was Richard Hill's book, Finding Family:  My Search for Roots and the Secrets in my DNA .  Once I started reading it, I couldn't put it down because it gave me the one thing that I had almost given up:  HOPE. By 2012, it w

On Being Excluded, Rejected and Feeling Like Ugly Betty

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Being excluded happens to us all at one point or another.   However, that doesn’t make it any less painful, just because it’s common.    My 14 year-old daughter and I have been watching Ugly Betty on Netflix while hanging out in our house during the Level 2 snow emergency this weekend.    Choosing a show that mom and daughter both approve of is a feat in and of itself.   I love the focus on Latin culture in New York City and she approves of the nuanced and well-developed characters.   America Ferrera, who plays Betty-a first generation immigrant- is far from ugly; however, the show is all about family sticking together, being who we are and moving forward with confidence, despite repeated exclusions and rejections.   We are already in Season 2 and haven’t lost interest. The show is a bit of an emotional support for something I recently experienced in my personal life.   I learned this week from a source that a close family member will be flying to another state to a

I am a Living Legacy to the Leader of the Band

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Chapter 1 of Sophi's search published in The Adoptee Survival Guide When you grow up in a closed adoption, there can be some unique psychology.   One common trait of those of us raised without any knowledge of where we came from is we can sometimes fantasize about our birth parents growing up.  One common fantasy is that one or both of our birth parents are famous.    Well, a friend of mine recently discovered she had a  famous biological father through second cousin matches in several DNA databases.     Her name is Sophi Richman Fletcher and she has been looking for answers to who her mystery daddy is for many years.   We have commiserated together in our searches and I am so pleased for her that she now has answers.   Her story was posted in my private Facebook search room and I'm sharing it here with permission:   "Greetings, fellow Who's Lynn's Daddy Searchers and Support Team:   I'm another adoptee who has been searching for the identity of my