Adoptee thankful for only parents she ever knew
“There are four of us, and we’re all adopted. I never knew my biological parents. When I was 25, I did find out their names. But I never tracked them down. From what I understand, they had a child and could not afford another one. That’s when the man left and I got put up for adoption. I don’t think I was even 1 year old yet. They put something in the newspaper for him to come forward if he wanted to claim me. He had so many days to do it, and he didn’t. So the court waived his parental rights, and I was able to go ahead and get adopted.
“I’ve known I was adopted since starting school. My parents sat us down and told us, ‘It doesn’t mean we love you any less. It just means that we took the time to love you, bring you into our home and give you a family.’ And I was like, OK. I was totally fine with that. I’ve had people ask me about my biological parents. But the thing is, my real parents are the ones who raised me and showed me love. I have a lot of respect for them because of that. They did so much for us. My mom always pushed us to get an education. Every single one of us got a high school diploma, and all of us have had a college education to some extent. She and my dad made sure we had a good home and everything we needed. We had food on the table. We had clothes on our back. We had toys all over the place for birthdays and Christmas. We never lacked for anything.
“I’m 45 now. I have a 17-year-old son, and he’s a great kid. The thing is, I had always wanted a girl. When I was pregnant with him, I had them do the sonogram twice. And they were like, ‘Sorry, that’s not the baby’s finger.’ So I figured, it will come along someday. For a few years now, I’ve been thinking about adopting. I told my mom that if I can adopt a child and bring her into my home, that’s one less kid in the foster system. I could love that child and teach her things. I could do for that child what my adoptive parents did for me and my siblings.”
— Clarissa Fielder (Liberty)
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