Naturally, I didn't know.

In 1992, 1595 people were asked in a poll if they, a family member or a close personal family member had a close personal experience with adoption. The response was quite overwhelming. 6 out of every 10 people said that they had been adopted, they had adopted a child or had given a child up for adoption.

Wild! As a child who was adopted, I never realized just how many people have some kind of tie to Adoption in the United States. In some ways it's comforting, to know that there are people out there who share a since of displacement, like myself. It's not that I didn't feel loved, or that I didn't love my parents- my feelings about that are quite the opposite. In fact, I have never wanted to "reach out" and find my biological family or birth parents because I have never felt the need to. Unfortunately, most of the people I have spoken with who have been adopted, share a common feeling of being "orphaned." This feeling is not overwhelming at all, just there. Most had perfectly healthy and normal childhoods, but as adults can't seem to rid themselves of that image where they were saved from Miss Hannigan at the Orphanage. It's not sad, but maybe a little warped.

After a little research on the Internet, I found many links to adoption that surprised me. These included Nature vs Nurture and Heredity vs the Environment. (Which are really the same thing, just phrased differently. A concept that is relatively new to me, Nature vs nurture is basically a question of whether or not our personality traits are based on genetics or our surroundings. I can see how easy it would be to make adopted children the lab rats in this scenario, born to different parents and growing up in household we don't share blood ties to anyone with. Easy marks, that's what we are!

Here is my adopted opinion on Nature vs Nurture. I think both factors bear heavily on the subject. I also don't believe that it can be narrowed down to just one or the other. It could go either way. Example: I grew up in a house where my mother and sister LOVED TO SHOP. I don't like to shop. I just don't have it in my DNA. If the theory of nurture is correct in this situation, then just by living and growing up with these people, I should (in theory) enjoy shopping. ( I realize what a general statement this is, but I am going to continue anyway.) Example #2: I am very even tempered. This is something that MUST be in my DNA, because most of the members of my immediate family are short tempered. They are angered easily. Growing up with them, If the nature argument were true, then I would never lose my temper, but I do on rare occasions, I think they rubbed off on me a little. : )

Just some interesting information I happened to stumble across. I thought I would share.