- A Question of Trust
- Intro: The Birth of a Blog
- You and Me Could Write a Bad Romance: Part I
- Bad Romance, Part II: The Couch
- Bastard Package #1
- Hallelujah
- Born This Way
- Baby Girl X
- Another Victim of Love
- True Life
- The Girls Who Went Away
- Love and Other Drugs
- 11 Things Adoptees Love to Hear
- Uh, Never Mind
- Adoptee Kid Lit
- Bastard Princess and the Search for the Holy Grail
- MYOFB
- Awkwardness
- Baby Steps
- Faith, Hope, and Catholic Charities
- Special Delivery
- Green-eyed Monster
- !@#$
- Pandora
- Fantasyland
- Adoptees You May Have Heard Of
- Big MAC Attack
- Material Girl
- VISA and Mastercard Accepted
- Don't Hold Your Breath
- Our Love is Like a Constipated Cat
- A Question of Trust
- Adoption, Hollywood Style
- All in the Family
Baby Steps
As the first step of my reentry into the adoption search process, I reluctantly checked out the State of Illinois Department of Vital Records Web page. They provide searchers with detailed instructions on how to navigate the murky, shark-infested waters of adoption information research. Original adoption and birth records can frequently be obtained by adoptees, birth parents, and adoptive parents and their children and siblings under certain conditions, if the birth occurred in Illinois.
At the time of the last website update, the Illinois Adoption Registry contained 12,704 total registrants, with 918 total matches. Most registrants were adult adoptees—almost three times the number of birth mothers. The number of registered birth fathers was only a small fraction of the number of birth mothers on file. Interesting, but not surprising. It was generally in tune with most of what I’d already learned about who searches.
All I can say is: Thank God for the Internet. I can’t possibly imagine taking up this search again without it, as continuous waiting and roadblocks would have allowed me to chicken out again. The site is way more user friendly than it was the first time I attempted to search. It was easy to locate, download, and print all the forms I needed, and everything was explained clearly. So far, so good…With this small victory under my belt, I’m now psyching myself up for my next reconnaissance mission: hitting up Catholic Charities for information from my adoption case files.
At the time of the last website update, the Illinois Adoption Registry contained 12,704 total registrants, with 918 total matches. Most registrants were adult adoptees—almost three times the number of birth mothers. The number of registered birth fathers was only a small fraction of the number of birth mothers on file. Interesting, but not surprising. It was generally in tune with most of what I’d already learned about who searches.
All I can say is: Thank God for the Internet. I can’t possibly imagine taking up this search again without it, as continuous waiting and roadblocks would have allowed me to chicken out again. The site is way more user friendly than it was the first time I attempted to search. It was easy to locate, download, and print all the forms I needed, and everything was explained clearly. So far, so good…With this small victory under my belt, I’m now psyching myself up for my next reconnaissance mission: hitting up Catholic Charities for information from my adoption case files.