Lynn Grubb

Today I am interviewing Lisa Floyd, adoptee extraordinaire! Lisa and I have met in person a couple times -- once we met half way between our houses (I am in Ohio, she is in Indiana) to have lunch and do a little shopping and another time, Lisa joined my daughter and I for a weekend trip to the Indianapolis Children's Museum.  We were like two giddy teens hanging in the hotel room together.  I love meeting adoptees in real life whom I have shared many conversations with on-line first. And adoptee-bonding time is the best! Lisa is an Indiana adoptee in reunion with both sides of her biological family.  She wrote an essay titled, "Discovering the Real Me" for The Adoptee Survival Guide. Hi Lisa! Thanks for joining me today!! I was curious -- what made you want to write an essay for The Adoptee Survival Guide ? I wanted to write an essay for The Adoptee Survival Guide, because I wanted to let adoptees know that they're not alone and there is a way to come out ...

A while ago, I received the following email after Beth McCrea found my Paradox  post at Lost Daughters: "I would like to ask your permission to use your poem in our presentation to our provincial premier as we meet to discuss open records. I am one of the founding members of COARnb (Coalition for Open Adoption Records in New Brunswick) and we have been invited to meet with our Premier (Governor) in February. We are working with Sen. D'Allesandro of NH and Paule Benoit of ME. So many of our sons and daughters were adopted to the New England states and all over the US. We are fighting hard to give them their Chapter One, which is rightfully theirs." I was flattered but I didn't think much would come of it. I mean, it's just a poem. However, I knew this person was as passionate as I am about adoptee rights (and even more impressive because she is not adopted herself) but I didn't think my poem would be any big deal when it came to changing ...

I've been thinking about why it has taken so long for the United States to grasp that adopted citizens should have a right to an accurate copy of their birth certificate. A struggle for the average citizen to understand adoptee rights comes from the urban legends that circulate like wildfire -- until they are seen as true --when in fact, they are false. The laws are far behind the realities of information, the internet and the wants and needs of modern original mothers and adult adoptees in domestic adoption. Adoptees are dying every day without their medical history, and the stories of their lives.  The progress has been slow since Oregon opened birth certificates to all adoptees in 2000. Read about Oregon's law here . The following myths are alive and well in the minds of the opposition of adoptee access to original birth certificates. Every adoptee needs to be well-versed in "talking points" when the legislature, family and friends ask valid quest...

My original birth certificate  I woke up this morning thinking about how the state stole my birthright and I felt indignant.   This is not anything new, for those of you who know that I participate in Adoptee Rights; but I have, as of late, been thinking about it in a new way. The state of Illinois, with all its wisdom and power, hid from me for 40 years of my life, my God-given human right to know my mother’s name.  And the state of Illinois got away with this injustice by using faulty laws that violated my due process rights.  What is due process?  A right that every United States citizen has.  Let’s look at some definitions: "No person shall be deprived of life, liberty, property or of any right granted him by statute, unless matter involved first shall have been adjudicated against him upon trial conducted according to established rules regulating judicial proceedings, and it forbids condemnation without a hearin...