Alexis Hourselt
STRONG. COMPASSIONATE. TRUTH-TELLER. I wish I could say I knew something was off before my DNA surprise. In hindsight, many things make more sense. From the narrative I was told […]
Kathleen Shea Kirstein
RESILIENT. GIVING. LOYAL. Wendy. Kathleen. Janet. It seems I am collecting first names along my journey as a Late Discovery Adoptee (LDA). Wendy was my original name for 43 days.
Dawn Kosmakos
FORTUNATE. CURIOUS. COMPASSIONATE. In 2013 I took a DNA test with 23andMe for fun and curiosity. I learned I had the cilantro gene and that I was a 4th cousin
Linda Karl
RESILIENT. TENACIOUS. PASSIONATE. “She looks Mexican.” That’s what I remember my Polish grandmother saying the one and only time I met her. My mother hurried me out of the room
Alyson Nowell
INQUISITIVE. PASSIONATE. LOYAL. Ever since I found out I had an NPE in February 2021, it has been a tough thing to reckon with. Is it a big deal; is
Julie Knott
CURIOUS. DETERMINED. ADVENTUROUS. I’m a year and a half into my MPE. It’s been tough but I wouldn’t change it for anything. Something was always wrong when I was young. I
David Berry
DAD. ENTREPRENEUR. ADVOCATE. In September 2017, after digging for explanations of an Ancestry.com DNA test that didn’t add up, I learned that I am donor-conceived. The word ‘shock’ can get
Beth Steury
RESILIENT. PROCESSING. FOUNDLING. I always knew that I was adopted, as did my three younger brothers, each of us adopted as infants. On the few occasions when the topic of
Michael B Greene
KIND. EMPATHIC. RESPONSIBLE. In mid-December 2018 I received a letter from a genealogist. It read: “… I am reaching out on behalf of a client who is searching for the
Krista Driver
INDEPENDENT. RESILIENT. DETERMINED. Everything I know about my “beginnings” is what I was told by the adults in my world and sometimes their stories didn’t quite align. I just have