I always knew I was adopted. From the time that I could understand the meaning, my parents tried to help me and my brother, Ed, know that we were chosen to be in this family. Loved, cherished and adored. We felt it and I never doubted the love my parents felt for me and my brother and sister, equally. This is a very difficult and emotional story to tell so please bear with me.
The hardest part about being adopted and searching then finding your birth family is the guilt. You feel horribly guilty like you are cheating on someone. I know in my heart who I am. I am the very proud daughter of Don and Pat Lynn. Sister of Ed and Deena. They made me who I am in every sense of the word “Family”. They are mine, no matter what. But who am I in DNA? What will my future health reveal? Some health concerns made me push a little harder to find the answers. I was not desperate. I had no “need” but curiosity and my drive to finish a project kicked in.
My entire life I’ve dreaded going to doctor appointments and filling out the forms. On the page where they ask “family medical history” I have only ever been able to write “ADOPTED”. This is all I had to write. Next page….
I was adopted into my loving family in late Fall, 1966. Born in Washington DC Hospital, the courts sealed my records. A sealed adoption is difficult to “unseal”. I never really cared to do anything but my Mom always told me and Ed she would help in any way she could.
In 2010, I began looking at online message boards for people searching for adopted family members. That search was a dead end. I joined Ancestry in 2014 on the recommendation of a friend who had success finding her birth family. I sent my DNA sample in. In about 6 weeks, the “cousins” started to appear in my DNA feed.
I was happy to connect with blood relatives but I was only seeing 4/5th generation cousins. I would message with them and they would ask me what my last name was. I could not tell them. I had no tree and no way to start one. My records were sealed and I never knew the last name of my birth parents. So I kept looking at the cousin’s trees and hoping something would jump out at me. Nothing did and days and weeks went by and I ignored it for a while.
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Kelly's Journey 