Adoptee Story: Fi

I became a ‘Ward of the State ‘ – Case #1302. I had a name ‘Colleen’. Perhaps just an obligatory requirement to place on a birth certificate? My health was still questionable considered ‘unsuitable’ for immediate adoption and was subsequently fostered. A beautiful family who I adore to this day. After 6 months in their care, sadly they said goodbye to me and I was adopted into a family that my foster mother later described to me as ‘cold’ and ‘didn’t gush’ over their potential child. A social worker wrote ‘they were disappointed I was ‘so old’ and not the newborn they had wished for’. They met me once, maybe twice? and convinced social authorities that with work commitments and travel distance involved ‘to get to know me’ was unattainable. They were granted early access to take me ‘home’. My adoptive
parents paid $10 in court fees for them to ‘legally own me’. Hospital/Foster/Adoption records were sealed ‘never to be opened’, a new birth certificate was issued with my new name ‘Fiona Louise’. I was to never know my origins.
(Thankfully closed adoption rules were amended in 1984 and adoptees were granted access to their records) . At age 21 I finally knew my truths and did not hesitate to find my family. Very quickly I found my birth mother, dejectedly, the
possibility of a reunion wasn’t well received. Sadly my birth father was not listed on my original birth certificate. I had some sketchy non-identifying descriptions of him which I realized later were fabricated lies from my birth mother. I was to never know who my birth father was; he was to never know I existed.