Tag Archive | Love

“Adoption—ancient yearnings for a true sense of belonging”

Simply, Beautiful.

Judith Land's avatarAdoption Detective: Memoir of an Adopted Child

Adoptees are motivated by curiosity, much like others when they engage in ancestral searches, but their motives eventually evolve into something more primal and powerful. An evolution in thinking takes place in their minds as they mature. With age and experience comes increased wisdom and insight; higher levels of emotional intelligence improve their understanding of complex issues and abstract concepts. In the hierarchal scale of human needs, their whimsical childish perspectives and simple curiosity about adoption gradually evolves into a stronger desire for knowledge based on a deep, psychological need to discover intangibles that are missing. When they come to the realization there has been an errant deviation in their life’s trajectory their curiosity intensifies. They become more aware of the primal wound inflicted on them at birth.

Ancient Yearnings | Judith Land | Adoption Detective There is a primal instinct within all living things, necessary for survival and the procreation of the species, to seek the specific…

View original post 633 more words

Love and Kisses ….

meandmybaby (2)

I hardly have any pictures of my niece and I together, so this picture is very rare.

I’m always the one behind the lens trying to capture the moment.

This is the day I remember as us giving a million kisses, almost like I would never kiss her again. She was so comfortable with us, we kissed our baby on the lips, on her cheeks, her little hands. Every visit I tried to drink her in, I tried to memorize every detail. I remember the way he felt in my arms, I remember the way she looked at me, like she should know me, but didn’t. Because she couldn’t.

This photo means the world to me, it’s something I cherish. I wish I could have this moment forever.

Mother and child separation induces severe psychological stress in animals

The separation of Mother and Child is incredibly devastating….

Judith Land's avatarAdoption Detective: Memoir of an Adopted Child

The bond between a mother and her child is the strongest bond found in all of nature. All infants have an instinctive need to stay near their mothers for survival. Scientific studies prove that separation induces severe psychological stress, causes deviations from normal behavior that is predictable, and provides scientific evidence that show the negative effect on the well being of humans and animals.

Separation anxiety disorder | Judith Land | Adoption Detective The emotional attachment elephants form toward family members rivals our own. A baby elephant will cry for hours when separated from its mother. Bonds between mother elephants and their daughters last 50 years or more.

The behavioral science of psychology that focuses on understanding behavior and the mind is called cognitive-behavioral research. Psychological and sociological data is replete with information about the importance of maternal bonding and the terrible consequences when it is disrupted. Nature has provided a process of ‘bonding’ to develop a close mother-infant…

View original post 434 more words

To Have and To Hold ….

Heart’s been broken, the truth still unspoken.

I wish it away, why can’t she stay?

Memories lost, they didn’t care what it cost.

Want so bad to shout, want all this pain out.

We need justice and peace, we’ll never give up on my niece.

Heart broken and body drained; spirit gone, only grief remains.

This can’t be true, they’ve taken our baby, what do we do?

Emptiness I can’t get passed, anxious to love her my heart beats so fast.

Will this ever be right, ever an end to this fight?

I pray and stay strong, can’t justify this wrong. 

I love her so deep, I miss her and weep.

Let her see through the lies she’s told, she belongs to us to have and to hold ….

Puerto Rican Babygirl

Image

It doesn’t make any sense that the name the adoptive couple gave my niece a completely Italian name.

Our baby has absolutely no Italian heritage. Nothing against Italians, it’s just that she isn’t Italian.

Their family is Italian, so in my opinion, it’s just another way of trying to make a child believe they’re something they’re not, trying to change who they are and make them into what you want them to be.

It’s a way of trying to make a child theirs, that will never truly be theirs, no matter what.

I think it is borderline cruel to name a little Puerto-Rican girl the most Italian name you can get.  

I can’t wrap my brain around it, much like everything else about this adoption.

From Broken to Being Whole

So last night obviously my broken heart jumped off the page, but tonight I went outside and looked at the dark night sky I love so much. I breathed and felt God’s love pour down over me. I loved the gorgeous moon, and I must have wished on every star in the sky. My face looking up, the tears ran completely down my face.

I’ve described this monster like being on a roller-coaster because it is up and down at any given moment.

Now that I have taken an ordered rest, following an accident, surgery, and now waiting on the second surgery, I’m supposed to be taking it easy, of course I can’t. All I can think of is knocking out the rest of the key points that need to be written before the final edit before print. I want desperately to put this first half of the book to rest. I want my people to know what happened to us, and to give them a warning of what can happen if you let your guard down for even a moment. Specifically written for my niece and family, and to let everyone involved know the impact this made on us. Our lives imploded.

I imagine once the book is on the shelf next to my bed, I will be able to sleep just a little more comfortably. I will close my eyes and almost sigh with relief. Writing about this has literally taken thousands of hours. Hours away from my kids, students, friends, and lovers. Make no mistake, it is all worth it to me. I’ve made so many sacrifices and the greater the sacrifice, the greater the reward.

I trust in God to make it right, I trust my niece will come home to us. I believe one day I’ll turn back into that love bug I once was, only better. I’ll be stronger and wiser. I’m cutting myself slack for the way I’m handling all this. Don’t mind me, I’m just a girl who had her heart ripped out. I’m absolutely allowed to grieve and mourn, kick and scream.

Each day as I look into my babies’ faces, it melts some of the ice that my heart is encased in. I’m just so angry that something so devastating happened to us, and sometimes I daydream of what life would have been like had it not. We’ve all missed out on so many wonderful things. This turned us all into cynics, and none of us ever looked at things the same again. We’re always suspicious, guarded, I don’t trust people as far as I could bowl them. I hate what this did to all of us, and how it changed us and made us take our rose-colored glasses off. It was like one day I believed in everything and felt as though I could fly, the next my wings were snipped off and the more I knew, the less I wanted to know and the less I understood. 

We were betrayed, used, made to look crazy, then tossed away like trash. Is it any wonder I harbor so many ill feelings? Can you even imagine yourself in the kind of situation we were put in? I’ve never even hear of a story like this.

‘ Neighbor and court clerk sells baby. ‘

Just imagine for a moment how that would tear you apart. People always say ‘ oh  if that happened to my family I’d go kill them. ‘ But you can’t. Your hands are completely tied, there’s nothing you can do, and court personnel decide the fate of your entire future without knowing you at all, and never having to deal with you again. I never knew what kind of ‘ justice system ‘ we had until this happened. I despise the courts and their procedures so much that I want to stay a million miles away from them. I’m not sure if there’s anything worse than dealing with the system, it’s enormously stressful and all-consuming. Is it any wonder I try to wish this all away? Is it any wonder that my feelings about this go back and forth and up and down?

So I’m not just some hateful, spiteful person. Tragedies change people, and they have to fight their way back to a be just a fraction of what they once were. Their lives become divided into two timelines, before the nightmare, after the nightmare.

If I didn’t have so much love and feel so much love, I don’t think I even would have survived this. The hate for the adoption aside, I love hard and deep regarding everything else.

Love really is stronger than hate.

We Have Questions, They Give No Answers

I hardly ever write during the day, but I found a few moments to sneak away and get some things off my mind.

> How did the Elliot County Courthouse ever get away with this?

> Why was this woman setting up an adoption of all things while on the clock at her ticket and  scheduling window?

> Was it not Elliot County’s responsibility to protect my sister and her baby by not allowing one of their employees to do such a thing to them?

> Why have they not been held accountable for what they did to our family?

> Why have they pushed our very serious allegations aside as if this is something that should not have been fully investigated?

> Why is this woman still working there, typing our names in and able to keep tabs on all of us?

> What else has she done from that ticket window?

> Why did we find out that Judge Gavin resigned for years of misconduct years after we brought our case to his attention? Obviously he cared nothing about the morality and legality of our situation.

> Why does Elliot County just ‘ not get to answer ‘ our questions and prove to us that this adoption was legally done on their premises by a woman licensed to do so? Are they aware of the ‘ goodies ‘ this woman got from the adoptive couple as a result of this adoption?

> Whose desk are our police reports just sitting on? Are they not required to investigate and respond to our reports?

> Do they know Judge Campbell told me ‘ this entire building has been infested by what she’s done ‘ . He had to make it known that Lupita had involved him prior to the case coming to him so the opposing attorney had the right to have him recuse himself from the case, immediately after, he stated that he ‘ was going to do what was in the best interest of the child ‘ . No sooner than the words left his lips, the opposing attorney requested a new judge. I guess he knew that ‘ best interest of the child ‘ meant staying with her natural family, that all showed up and took up a row of seats.

> Why can no one do anything about it? Every office I’ve dealt with has told me that Elliot County would have to do an investigation because it’s their jurisdiction. Do they understand that Elliot County doesn’t want to explain how such an adoption took place, why adoption forms were being faxed to and from her office, why phone calls were made to and from her office, why the pregnant teen was her former neighbor and living at her house, why she was meeting with the adoptive couple, why she made all meetings and appointments in the 28 days this adoption took place in, why the couple flew her to the baby shower as the ‘ guest of honor ‘ , why the couple gave her an engraved Tiffany & Co. bracelet that read ‘ to auntie Lupita .’   Why my sister’s hospital bills remain unpaid, her wages garnished, her daughter gone, thanks to Lupita’s ‘ help .’

> Do they know the agency that handled the adoption lost their license to practice less than a year after we brought our allegations to them, for reasons they will not disclose?

> Is ‘ Adoption for Profit ‘ in the employee handbook?

> Why are our allegations not ‘ serious ‘ enough to be fully investigated?

 

> Why?

 

> Why?

 

> Why?

 

Somewhere Between Lovely and Lunacy

If it weren’t for this, life would be good.

Beautiful kids, lovely home, garden, nice car, many people who love me and multiple proposals, two great simultaneous careers: teaching preschool and event planning.

Writing a book that is nearly ready for print. I vacation several times a year, recently escaped to the Eastern Caribbean, another getaway to Hawaii soon.

I have a niece and nephew that no one can take from me. I’m creative, smart, one-of-a-kind Pisces girl, throwing a baptism for 6 in a few months, and much to my excitement, all the boxing! I’m a huge fan and I feel so spoiled with the recent fights of Pacquiao, Cotto, and upcoming Canelo fight. I’m the world’s greatest hostess for the fights, UFC, and Superbowl. Tons of food ( and I cook the best) a huge television with a Bose sound system, fire pit with chairs in the backyard, pool table, Dominoes, darts, and loud music in the garage. As long as I can remember, people have always come to my house for celebrations and kick-backs because no one does it better. 

It has taken me so long to fight back, to want to be alive, to want to smile. I keep thinking back to my life before all this happened. It was normal, whatever that means.

Then one day, the carpet got yanked out from underneath us and nothing would ever be the same again. It changed absolutely everything. After that point, I felt like everywhere I went, I needed security. I know it sounds odd, but it just means that anything can happen at any given time. If only I could have security for everyday life, to protect me from all the bad things in the world, all the awful things people do to each other without a second thought.

So life went from things like toasting ‘ to love’ and being VIP everywhere I went (which is everywhere) to breaking everything I could get my hands on in the house. Many dishes and decorations were casualties of this bizarre circumstance. A lot of screaming and crying, weeping, begging, praying.

It’s been so up and down, and it made a lot of people lose a lot of things. Marriages, miscarriages, great jobs, friends, homes, smiles, happiness, senses of well-being. I have always lived by ‘ Trust None ‘ and though I’m bouncing back, it unfortunately remains true.

Slowly the cynical is being chipped away. Other than God, I really leaned on myself to get through this. I didn’t want to burden friends, I had a partner who was clueless and careless, I didn’t want to further break the hearts of those I loved so I couldn’t speak of it. After all this time, I’m finally realizing I am strong, and I have made it this far. I haven’t given up for one single moment. Each day I thank God and when I finally lie down, I think ‘ one day closer . ‘

One day, life will again be sweet. No distractions of anything adoption. I won’t have to say the ‘ A ‘ word, I won’t have to carry it on my shoulders, and it won’t give me any more nightmares. I just want to be free of this. I want myself back, I just want everything to be okay again.

Always Making The Time

After a blissfully busy day, which started out very early with my eldest daughter, a rare and delicious cup of coffee, and the heartwarming movie ‘The Water is Wide’, now is the quiet time I cherish.  

The time I get to spend with my niece.

Kids are all tucked in after being fed, bathed, read to, and prayed with.

The house is spotless, Joyce Meyer on the television.

Got a ton of homework done, and decorated 45 cupcakes for my son’s class to celebrate his 15th birthday today.

Taking full advantage of my sabbatical over the next four months as I await surgery and recovery, I am enjoying every moment at home taking care of the two little babies I was recently blessed with. Although I miss my students everyday and can’t wait to get back to my classroom, I love falling in love with my miracle babies all throughout the day. Then when I go back to work, my son will be in my class and the baby girl will be in a nearby infant classroom so I’ll have the best of both worlds; having a career I love and spending the first five critical years with the babies I prayed for over eleven long and disappointing years. Losing two babies because of this ugly adoption was and always will be excruciating. Wondering about the two babies that may have been puts a lump in my throat that I cannot swallow. So as much as I hurt over that, I am trying to fully appreciate the blessings that are right in front of me. But when your heart hurts, it hurts. You can’t tell it to stop because it’s slowly killing you. The absence of the presence of the ones you love will run through your mind a million times a day. Their place is never replaced.  

No matter what I’m doing or how busy I get, I always make the time to try to achieve the heart to heart with my niece that I am so desperately longing for. I do anything I can to keep her with me. I see the resemblance of her little face when I look at the babies and though I am consumed with absolute joy, I can’t help but think what I wouldn’t give to hold my niece just as close. I just want to look at her, and when I once again do, I’m sure she will see and feel the love in my eyes.

So before I get ‘tucked in’  and pray, I want her to know she is always with me. It is sheer devotion to her that drives me on in this lonely, unbelievable, and indescribable crusade. It’s madness, a huge monster with a life of its own. Being away from her is a slow and tortuous ordeal. But I never lose faith. I never lose hope. I imagine our reunion and it makes me smile, my soul elated …. Then and only then will I be able to fully breathe, to fully live, to fully love.