My Adoption Story part 1

My adoption documents state the following:

My story, as I know it, starts in Medellín, Colombia. In November 1984, an unknown woman brought me to a police station in Medellín. She said that she had found me in the street and had kept me for a month. She had not been able to find my mother, and she was now handing me over to the police.

On November 24th, 1984, the police contacted a place called el Hogar en Transito in Medellín. I think this was some kind of orphanage. They have since closed and changed both name and location, so it is very hard to find any information about this place by searching online. It is a bit of a mystery whether this place was an actual orphanage or more of a transfer home, from where kids would be placed in foster families while awaiting adoption.

The director of el Hogar en Transito communicated with the police officer who took me in and was told that my mother did not come to claim me at the police station. For this reason, they considered it best for me to be put into the adoption program through ICBF (Instituto Colombiano de Bienestar Familiar) or the Colombian Family Welfare Institute.

In January 1985, in an attempt to find any family of mine, my picture was placed in a newspaper, together with two other girls. In the photo caption, it read that my name was unknown and that anyone who recognized me could come to claim me. The address was there.

No one came. Subsequently, I was labeled abandoned.