Open Adoptions End the Hard Search for Missing Pieces

It is indeed a shame that the facts about Shirley Frankel’s adoption and birth family are shrouded in mystery (“An Adoptee’s 30-Year Search for the Pieces of Her Past,” Oct. 21).

Open adoptions today are a far cry from the closed adoptions of the past. As someone who participated in a totally open adoption nearly six years ago, I feel fortunate that my daughter will not be denied access to information about her biological origins. My husband and I spent a lot of time with our daughter’s birth mother and have met other members of the family, including our child’s biological siblings. It’s very likely that she will meet some of these relatives someday.

Our daughter will know not only where her blue eyes come from, she’ll also know that the woman who gave birth to her was a brave, caring, and smart young woman who knew her limitations and wanted her baby to have a better life and more stable environment than she could provide for her at the time.

Adoptees today whose families choose to be part of the enriching experience of open adoption will not need to search fruitlessly for the missing pieces of their lives.

DEBORAH KAYE

North Hollywood

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I found the article about Shirley Frankel to be very disturbing. A 65-year-old woman who is a wife and mother, who says she has no history? What a curious statement to make. To imagine that the lives lived by some phantom family would somehow validate her own existence, and tell her who she is, is absurd.

I am an adoptee who has no knowledge of any birth relatives, and I have an extensive history. My history is the wonderful family who raised me, my own marriage, my education, the friends I’ve made, the places I’ve been, the books I’ve read, the films I’ve seen, all the experience I’ve had. I know exactly who I am.

MOLLY PARADISO

Redondo Beach