Are you a fan of Post Secret? I am. Every Sunday, my Husband and I load the webpage and read through the secrets sent in by people on postcards. We own all four books, each of which was read through in a day's time. We find them interesting, sad, funny, alarming and every other reactionary measure you can have to someone else's secret. Some of them strike chords with us in different ways.

And, inevitably, there's always a postcard related to birth, abortion, pregnancy and/or adoption. This, of course, drives me mostly insane. I hate that I don't really have one safe place to just "be" without facing adoption issues but I suppose that's a post for another day.

Today's Post Secret, as they are posted every Sunday, featured a postcard that mentioned adoption. While not as deep as some others from the past, it finally forced me to write about the postcards on this blog. Perhaps I'll make this a weekly thing.

Today's adoption secret read:

I used to daydream that I was given up for adoption by Harrison Ford.

So many questions posed by one little postcard. I would venture to guess that the writer of the secret is not an adoptee though it is possible, don't you think? Many an adoptee has said that, especially as a child, they envisioned their birth parents as grandiose characters and were disappointed in their normal humanity. Harrison Ford sounds like a much cooler biological father than Joe Schmoe who works at the local factory and can make a mean hamburger on the grill.

Quite honestly, this postcard and the daydreams about birth parents proves the argument for open adoption. There is no wonder. Good, bad, indifferent; the child knows what to expect as opposed to living a life of wonder. Instead of looking for similarities in Harrison Ford's smile or the twinkle in his eye (because, oh, the twinkle in his eye!), they can find honest similarities in their birth parents smiles and eyes. Those who are not adopted are probably thinking, "Oh, what's the big deal?" Unless you don't know your biological parents and know that inner wonder of "who do I look more like," this might actually seem like a trivial issue.

But I still think that, perhaps, this postcard wasn't written by an adoptee. The use of "given up" and the magical, dreamy way that adoption is spoken of doesn't really sound like an adoptee who is actively searching for a birth parent. It actually sounds like any Jane Doe from the general public, ringing with the complete lack of understanding as to what adoptees go through with regards to their relinquishment, search and reunion.

All the same, I wonder what other birth parents are reading Post Secret every Sunday and are touched in the same way I am, week after week. What has been your reaction to some of the adoption (and other parenting, pregnancy or abortion) postcards? Feel free to leave a comment.

//
For more on society and placement, read these posts.




Photo Credit.