Adoption: The Making of Me. An Oral History of Adoptee Stories

From Happiness to Despair and Back Again

January 10, 2023 Louise Browne & Sarah Reinhardt Season 3 Episode 8
Adoption: The Making of Me. An Oral History of Adoptee Stories
From Happiness to Despair and Back Again
Show Notes

Daphne Keys is a BSE adoptee born and raised in Maryland as the middle child between two brothers who are the biological children of her adoptive parents. Daphne always knew she was adopted, had access to the minimal non-identifying information provided at her adoption hearing, and always searched the faces of her community for a connection to her biological family.

Married for forty years, Daphne is the mother of four adult children and grandmother of eleven. Daphne did not realize the impact her adoption had on her ability to bond with and parent her own children until coming out of the fog after beginning a reunion with her biological family at age fifty-six.

Daphne’s reunion with her birth mother’s family has been a wild ride from the pinnacle of happiness to the depths of despair. An avid reader, Daphne turned to the experts such as Betty Jean Lifton and Nancy Verrier to help her along her reunion journey. At the suggestion of her biological Aunt, Daphne turned to writing to help her process her feelings and is still working on a memoir. Along the way, Daphne
also began quilting and has found this very therapeutic. After all, she has been putting her pieces back together in various patterns, her entire life.

Also in this episode, Sarah and Louise discuss A.M. Homes' The Mistress's Daughter.

If you'd like to read along with Sarah and Louise, go here: The Mistress's Daughter by A.M. Homes

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