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I started with this story of CAS because I am finding it very difficult to deconstruct my life but this is where I’ve decided to start. \u00a0Molly Fraser.\u00a0\u00a0What an important woman in my life, as I cannot say for sure that I know all that I do about my adoption and blood family, if were not for her.\u00a0\u00a0Molly was the case worker for my adoption from Children\u2019s Aid Society (CAS) here in Ottawa.\u00a0\u00a0I had the opportunity to sit and talk with her after learning about my blood sister, Linda when I was about 17 years old.<\/p>\n
I was about 16 years old when my mother told me that I had a blood sister, Linda who was living with her family in Salmon Arm, British Columbia. \u00a0I\u2019m a little unclear how they got in touch with Molly, but they had reached out to CAS to see if Linda had any blood relatives.\u00a0\u00a0Although I was not of age, Molly and my mother had developed a friendship over the years so Molly reached out to my mother as a friend. \u00a0Molly, my mother, and Linda\u2019s mother began a conversation as to how to approach telling Linda and I about each other, and I believe it took almost of year of going back and forth trying to find the right time to tell us both.\u00a0\u00a0I remember the day clearly.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n We had just finished dinner and my mother took out a family photo and asked if I recognized anyone in the picture.\u00a0\u00a0I saw myself as an adult with people I did not recognize.\u00a0\u00a0My mind was really trying to figure out when me, as an adult, could be in a photo with people that I didn\u2019t know.\u00a0\u00a0My mother then said that this was my sister.\u00a0\u00a0Honesty, we look like identical twins.\u00a0\u00a0Having grown up not looking like anyone in my family, to then see someone who was exactly like me was so incredibly exciting.\u00a0\u00a0At that moment, we all went to different phones in the house, yes, the days of land lines throughout the house.\u00a0\u00a0Within a month or so, I was on a plane to BC!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Back to Molly.\u00a0\u00a0We had a very frank conversation about the time when I was put up for adoption.\u00a0\u00a0She said my mother had been there before, to give up Linda.\u00a0\u00a0Giving me up was extremely difficult, as you can imagine.\u00a0She came in somewhere between 3 and 5 times before finally leaving me.\u00a0\u00a0I cannot imagine the pain for her, Diane, to live through all this alone at a time when being out of wedlock and pregnant had such great stigma.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I often wonder, if my mother and Molly had not become friends, if my meeting Linda would have happened.\u00a0\u00a0I do know that I have a brother somewhere and with these writings I am hoping that somehow, I might find him as well.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Linda and I connected for years and then with young families we lost contact.\u00a0\u00a0Today, through the ease of social media, I have connected with her again.\u00a0\u00a0I try and explain to people the difference between my sisters that I grew up with and Linda.\u00a0\u00a0There\u2019s no comparison and no replacing either type of relationship, all so very special to me. \u00a0There will be lots more to come about Linda, connecting with my family on the reserve and how I was blessed to be raised in a home that encouraged me to learn more.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"