Answers to the question...Why did I choose to share my story in a book?

Why I Share My Story?
 
I have been asked numerous times ...Why did I write my story and share it in a book? Why did I open myself up as I did to the pain and traumas of the past...why reopen old wounds? You get the idea.

Well lets to try to answer those questions.

First; writing my story has been very healing for me.
I discovered by reliving some of the pains, traumas
etc. of the past that what I thought had healed years
ago was actually just scabbed over. Writing the story
allowed real healing to actually occur.

Second; I realized there are others in the world that
have had some of the very same experiences as I.
Maybe, just maybe, by my sharing they would realize
they aren't alone in their experience and that they
could overcome. If it helps just one person, my efforts have been worth it. It also might help others going through the search process.

Third: I wanted those who have never been touched by
the adoption triad or foster care system to realize
that no, one does not need to be dysfunctional or
unhappy to search for their roots by searching for
their birth parents. Most of us are quite healthy in
every meaning of the word...we just want to know who
we are and where we came from. We want what comes
naturally to those who were raised by their biological
family. I also wanted those within the adoption triad to realize that not only do they search but many of us kids placed for adoption but never adopted but ended up being raised within the foster care system have to go through the same search process they do. I may have gotten my birth mother's name easily but it still took four years of search before finding her.

Fourth: I want to change the foster care system and
adoption laws in regards to opening records to adult
adoptees. I hope that those involved in either of
those situations (agencies, courts, legislatures, etc.) might read the book and realize the need for a
change and also realize their current laws and programs cause only harm to those impacted by them..

Five: Royalties from the book will possibly allow me to fulfill a life long dream...the dream of a foundation that would provide assistance for kids trapped in the foster care system for continuing education might become a reality. That they to might have the opportunities I have been blessed with throughout my life.

There you have it, five reasons, but the most
important as far as I am concerned is...if it helps
one person in their own healing process as it has
helped me while writing it...then I will be a happy
man.