My book has three narrators:
- my birth mother, Hariklea,
- my adopted mother, Ellen, and
- myself.
It is the tale of two mothers and their connection to one child.
One mother experienced shame because she had a child and the other because she could not.
I am one of 3,500 Greek orphans adopted to the U.S. in the 1950s.
Conceived in an act of violence, I was born to a fifteen-year-old child who was exiled from her island home for 44 years.
Homeless and seven months pregnant in a large mainland city, she could not care for me and lost me to foreign adoption.
Raised in California, I returned to Greece when I was 30 where, through a series of life-changing events, I reconnected with my birth mother.
Based on documents and oral histories given by both mothers, and my experiences, it is a tale so miraculous it touches the fine line between blind luck and unexplained miracle.
Background:
I found my birth mother in 1984 in one day.
Each trip I made I brought a list of questions and a journal.
As time passed and I learned more about my family, the story became more and more incredible.
I didn’t decide to write my book, I knew I had to write this book!
My adoptive mom’s scrapbook, loaded with primary documents from Greek and U.S. agencies, provided a comprehensive look at international adoptions.
Website:
