Adoptees Need Right to Obtain Information

Re “Moonbeams and Hope,” Commentary, Nov. 28: John Balzar writes poetically about adoption. Thirty-two years ago my husband and I were blessed with adopting a 3-week-old son and three years later a 6-week-old daughter. I memorized this short verse in 1969 when my son joined our family: “Not blood of my blood / Nor bone of my bone / But still miraculously my own / Never forget for a single minute / You weren’t born under my heart but in it.”

However, I bristle at National Adoption Month, a token recognition that spotlights an underclass. It would help if Balzar worked for the rights of adoptees. In spite of making many contacts with the San Diego County Adoption Agency, a private investigator and many other adoption liberty groups, my children can’t learn about their birth parents nor their in-depth health records. My husband and I will always be their real parents because we brought them up, but my children should be able to meet their birth parents and extended family and should know their family’s health issues as they become parents. Good luck to the Balzars as they embark on life’s roller-coaster, parenting!

Sandra Lippe

San Diego