Have you ever felt you should write your life story? Or at least parts of it? I have.
I was born on Christmas Day, but it wasn’t until my 5th Birthday that I had a place to call home.
My motivation for writing a personal memoir is to share how God has blessed my life. My memoir is still in the hopper, and I use the term hopper because it conjures up a visual of raw material being churned about and eventually coming out at the end as a finished product. Creative non-fiction, the genre that memoirs fall into, requires hours of research, reading of other memoirs, learning to write like a professional and an intense draw on honesty, memories, and emotions.
I’m into my fifth year on this writing project.
I was adopted just before my fifth birthday.
As many of you would understand, most people prefer to adopt a baby so they can mold and raise the child from the start. It was a credit to my adoptive parents that they took on this risky task, especially since they had never had children and were in their forties.
They loved me completely, but I still felt a unique loneliness and a longing for that missing piece.
Just before my 49th Christmas birthday, those feeling drove me to begin a birth family search. With fear and apprehension, I began the process.
The search went quickly, and there were many disappointing and exciting moments.
When, at age 50, I found my birth family, I gained new knowledge about the circumstances surrounding my separation from them. I also learned about the upheaval and changes during my early years. It is my hope that readers will see, as I did, God’s rescue plan for my life.
Writing for the Hot Apple Cider series has been encouraging. My stories in Christmas with Hot Apple Cider and Hot Apple Cider with Cinnamon reveal small parts of my adoption story. Being selected for these books has both encouraged and inspired me to continue working on my memoir.
Carol Ford is a speaker, career coach, and writer. One of her interests is in sharing her adoption reunion story with women’s and seniors’ groups. As a contributor on Hope Stream Radio, she gives advice on work life. From Newmarket, Ontario, Carol, who volunteers with The Word Guild, also leads a local writers’ group. Together, this group penned a devotional book for writers, As the Ink Flows: Devotions to Inspire Christian Writers & Speakers, which was a finalist in the 2017 The Word Awards.
So glad you were rescued! It could have been such a different story and quite possibly, never told.
Yes, Patricia, I have much to be thankful for.
Your story is wonderful. These photos – amazing. The inspiration you offer – wonderful! Well done, Carol. And thanks for the insight.
With interest, I read your heartwarming and heartbreaking story in Christmas with Hot Apple Cider, Elaine. You see my husband and I are parents of three adopted children, now adults. Like your adopting parents, we weren’t young sprouts either when we adopted, but we are so glad we did.
One of my aunts and her husband had worn out the adoption application forms going over and over them, but they never did send the forms in. I had told my husband before our marriage that if we didn’t have children soon after our marriage, I would like to adopt children. Perhaps I was impatient, but I did so want to have children. After a year and a half of marriage and no pregnancies coming, I reminded Hank that I meant what I’d said about adopting. The next day I came home from teaching to find the adoption application on the kitchen table.
This all started in 1977 when our first of three infants arrived. The rest is recorded in photos and stories with grandchildren as a bonus. I loved your story.