Wednesday,

BLOOD IS thicker than
water is an expression that
has a bittersweet meaning
for adopiecs.

By Elizabeth Ccllings
News Reporter

While most of us take for
granted our family, relatives and
cultural heritage, adoptees are just
as surely cut off from their past.

“There's only an ending for us,
there’s no beginning,’’ explains
Ann Wodak, a member of North
Shore Adult Adoptees.

Originally formed under the
auspices of North Shore Fainily
Services, North Shore Adult
Adoptees (NSAA) now operates
independently as a support group
for adult’ adoptees coming to
terms with the issues ihat arise
from their adoption.

The grcup is made up of eight
to 10 women who are in various
Stages of seeking out their birth
mother.

Some, such as Wodak, are still
‘sitting on the fence,’’ as she calls
it, about whether to begin the
search while others have already
been reunited with their birth
mother and, in some cases, their
birth father.

Wodak says the feeling adoptees
have while they are growing up
that they are somehow different
from other kids and even from
their adopted relatives is some-
thing that can carry on into adult
life.

NEWS photo Tarry Peters

THE BIG question mark in many adoptees’ lives is where do i come from? Ann Wodak is a member
of North Shore Adult Adopiees, 4 support group for adoptees who are searching for their birth
parents.

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Adoptees search for
life strategies

These questions range from the
obvious — who do ! leok like? —
to the more serious — what is my
medical history?

In 1985, when Wodak became
seriously ill, she was unable to
Provide her doctor with her medi-
cal history from birth.

Another NSAA member, Liz
Walsh, was a borderline diabetic
but also lacked the medical history
that might have helped her and
her doctor anticipate and deal
with the diabetes.

Although the search for birth
Parents often causes hurt to the
adopted parents, it should not be
interpreted as rejection, Wodak
says.

“This has nothing to do with
our adopted parents. | couldn't
have asked for nicer parents —- if
they were natural or adopted,”’
she said.

But still, the questions for
adoptees linger.

Walsh is taking her search to
Scotland. She knows her birth
mother came to London from
Scotland for the duration of her
pregnancy. After her birth, Walsh
was given to her adopted parents
who then took her to South
Africa.

Wodak knows even Iess about
her birth parents. Her birth
mother was 19 when she was
born, her father 49. She believes
she was first taken in by a foster
home before she was adopted.

“We gained a lot but we also
lost a lot,’? Wodak says.

For information about NSAA,
call Walsh at 980-0903.

ES|

TTER

892-5857
932-6617

Whistler