I wanted to include this in my blog. I was contacted by the producers of Find My Family last year but I had already done my reunion. No word yet on this series and if it will continue.
New TV Show Highlights Adoption Search-and-Reunion Stories
by Kathie Forward
A new television program on ABC, called Find My Family, focuses on search and reunion, primarily adoption-related. It is hosted by two adult adoptees, including Tim Green, author of A Man and His Mother, the story of his search for his birth mother. By going to abc.com, and then findmyfamily, one can download a 13-page application to be considered for the show.
I am an adult adoptee who, so far, has failed to locate any of my birth family. So when I first heard of this new program, I was excited. The first show aired on Monday, November 23rd. It featured birth parents who had relinquished a baby girl when they were only 14 and 15, then later married and had more children. The hosts went through the usual questions as to why they wanted to search now and how they thought it would make a difference. Next, they explained the steps taken to locate the child. The birth mother had named her daughter Tanya, but the birth records came up blank. Finally, the Find My Family staff went to the hospital and went through all birth records until they found a match by birth date. It turned out the daughter grew up only eight miles away from the birth parents. Then the show featured the reunion, held by a tree in an undisclosed location, one of the show’s “gimmicks.”
The second show aired on November 30th and featured two stories. Story One was an adoptee looking for her full brother who had been raised by the birth parents, who ws only 16 months older than she was. Again, the breakthrough was searching all birth records for her date. When they found her records, they backtracked 16 months to find a boy. Again, the parents were married. When they actually contacted the brother, he informed Find My Family that there was a younger sister, not relinquished. In all cases, once the match is made, Find My Family obtains permission from all parties to set up the reunion.
Story Two of this episode was a daughter searching for her birth mother. Again they searched birth records. This time they had the birth mother’s name. However, this was no help. Finally, Find My Family decided to check marriage records and that was how the birth mother was located.
I realize these reunions are set up for television, but everyone seemed too agreeable and way too happy. They even showed follow-up visits (a few weeks or months later) and everything was “just wonderful.” Realistically, it doesn’t always work out that way. My concern is that it portrays reunion as the answer to everyone’s lifelong problems. However, it may motivate a lot of people to search.
I downloaded the application and found many of the questions helpful in deciding to search and in planning how I might handle a reunion. The program would also be good for starting a discussion about search and reunion between adoptive parents and children, or in families where there has been a relinquishment in the past, or even between parents who were adopted themselves and their own children. Time will tell how popular this program is and how it develops.
Excerpted from the January 2010 edition of the Operation Identity Newsletter
© 2010 Operation Identity
http://www.nmoi.org/articles/FindMyFamily.html
back-up blog (just in case) (update/ 3/17/2024)
Pages
- Home
- About Trace
- Question and Answer with Trace
- Karen Vigneault - Helping Native Adoptees Search
- Soaring Angels (search help for adoptees)
- You're Breaking Up: Adoptive Couple v. Baby Girl #ICWA
- About the Indian Adoption Projects
- NEW: Study by Jeannine Carriere (First Nations) (2...
- Bibliography
- Split Feathers Study
- Oklahoma Supreme Court RULING: Brown v.Delapp (9-2...
- NEW STUDY: Post Adoption (Australia)
- Adoption History
- Laura Briggs: Feminists and the Baby Veronica Case...
- Help for First Nations Adoptees (Canada)
- GOLDWATER
- Canada Timeline
- THE PLACEMENT OF AMERICAN INDIAN CHILDREN - THE NEED FOR CHANGE (1974)
- How to Open Closed Adoption Records for Native American Children
BACK UP BLOG
This blog is a backup for American Indian Adoptees blog
There might be some duplicate posts prior to 2020. I am trying to delete them when I find them. Sorry!
There might be some duplicate posts prior to 2020. I am trying to delete them when I find them. Sorry!
If you need support
Support Info: If you are a Survivor and need emotional support, a national crisis line is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week: Residential School Survivor Support Line: 1-866-925-4419. Additional Health Support Information: Emotional, cultural, and professional support services are also available to Survivors and their families through the Indian Residential Schools Resolution Health Support Program. Services can be accessed on an individual, family, or group basis.” These & regional support phone numbers are found at https://nctr.ca/contact/survivors/ .
MY EMAIL: tracelara@pm.me
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
CLICK OLDER POSTS (above) to see more news
BOOKSHOP
Please use BOOKSHOP to buy our titles. We will not be posting links to Amazon.
Featured Post
Does adopting make people high? #WonderDrug
reblog from 2013 By Trace A. DeMeyer Hentz I’ve been reading blogs by Christian folks who saved an orphan and plan to do it again. Appar...
Popular Posts
-
White Earth Nation welcomes adoptees home by Dan Gunderson , Minnesota Public Radio October 5, 2007 Listen to feature audio This weekend th...
-
2023 Editor NOTE: This is one of our most popular posts so we are reblogging it. (SEE COMMENTS) If you do know where Michael Schwartz is, pl...
-
I could on for an hour about this but I won't. Fathers have rights and this time, a father got his daughter back after a...
-
You know everything happens for a reason. I just received the book “Sudden Fury” about an adoptee who killed his adoptive parents in Marylan...
-
Boston Globe June 2, 1996 REUNION DAY AT 43: NAVAJO NATIVE FINALLY HOME Author: Royal Ford, G...
-
CLICK: AMERICAN INDIAN ADOPTEES: GUEST POST: Reactive Attachment Disorder by Levi E... : Levi EagleFeather (Lakota) This is one of the most...
-
T he Métis National Council and the Government of Canada will be working collaboratively, Nation-to-Nation, to develop a process to engag...
To Veronica Brown
Veronica, we adult adoptees are thinking of you today and every day. We will be here when you need us. Your journey in the adopted life has begun, nothing can revoke that now, the damage cannot be undone. Be courageous, you have what no adoptee before you has had; a strong group of adult adoptees who know your story, who are behind you and will always be so.
Reunions are too complicated for a half-hour reality show segment but showing adoptees it can be done successfully was a good idea. I was contacted by the producers and they did say that counselling was offered to all sides of the Adoption Triad - which I thought was fantastic. Reunions take years, not minutes.
ReplyDelete