It’s stunning to realize that only 10 states make birth records available to American-born adoptees and their biological parents—Alabama, Alaska, Colorado, Connecticut, Kansas, Maine, New Hampshire, New York, Oregon and Rhode Island. For adult adoptees born in the 20th century era of closed adoptions, this presents a painful obstacle to discovering their origins and ending the agonizing hunger to know their own identity.
Janet Sherlund poignantly captures this journey in her elegant and heart-wrenching memoir, ABANDONED AT BIRTH: Searching for the Arms That Once Held Me (Forefront Books; May 7, 2024). Sherlund paints a vivid portrait of the detachment and longing of an adopted child and the lifelong quest to find her biological mother. It’s an unflinching examination of the grief and trauma caused by this primal separation and the dogged determination it takes to face the forces of opposition—both internal and external—to finally achieve answers.
ABANDONED AT BIRTH illuminates the darker side of adoption, and what it takes to heal. “I hope it starts conversations about the rights of those given away, loss and grief in adoption, the biology of belonging and identity, and why love is not always enough to extinguish the pain,” Sherlund says.
Like many adoptees of her generation, Sherlund was the offspring of teenaged parents. Her mother was forced to have her baby in secrecy. Sherlund would come to learn that her mother was unusual for her time. Not only did she not tell the father she was pregnant, she wanted nothing to do with her baby and never even looked at her newborn. All Sherlund had to go on when she began her search was a false narrative written about her biological parents by the adoption agency. The twists and turns, setbacks and disappointments, and surprising familial connections finally achieved makes ABANDONED AT BIRTH a page turner of a memoir.
This program will be Friday October 18th at 2pm in the Main Meeting Room at the Osterville Village Library. For more information or to register for this event, please contact Amy Wolfe at awolfe@clamsnet.org or by calling the OVL directly at (508)428-5757