I am part of what is called in Adoption Circles "the triad". The triad consists of the birth mother, the adopting family and the baby. In my case I am an adoptee (baby) and a birth mother. Of course, this makes it more complicated than the usual. An adoptee has their own set of challenges - a gigantic tragic loss of their mother (and other family) at birth, transition to a new family, wondering why they were relinquished (nice word for being abandoned), wondering who their birth family is and what is their real background, etc? And no one ever looks like you, you have no birth story to speak of and yet those questions are asked constantly. "What nationality are you? Who do you look like? Where did you get your name?" Etc....it's actually surprising how often we talk about bloodlines and pedigrees and background and ethnicity as people. Certainly as children it seemed to be a constant topic of conversations. As an adoptee, sometimes I answered as though I was...