Lydia Mackey
ADVOCATE. EMPATHETIC. BRAVE. Let me begin my story at five years old when my mother dropped me off with my paternal “Grandparents” for them to raise me. They obtained custody […]
MPE Narrative
Dawn Gable
RESILIENT. EMPATHETIC. CURIOUS. After being in reunion with my birth parents and our extended family for 35+ years, my DNA test knocked a whole branch off the maternal side of
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