Sinead Phelan is adopted. She was born in Dublin, Ireland in 1978 ,she was given to her adopted parents at 3 months old. She was raised with an older brother who was also adopted, and with whom she is incredibly close.
She and her brother knew from a young age.
In her teenage years, curiosity really started to set in as to who her biological family might actually be…and where they might be.
At 18, with the support of her parents, her search for her biological family began.
Initially, she was interviewed by a social worker at the Catholic adoption agency who told her she was too young to take this search on as the outcome could turn out to be negative and to come back in a few years.
At 21 she returned and they agreed she was ready to take on the search. Just three days later they found her biological mother and a reunion was planned for the following week.
At the reunion she found out her original name was Kate Melody and her mother really didn’t want to give her up for adoption, due to pressures from her family she felt the only way she could help her was to give her up for adoption.
The process of finding her biological mother brought on a series of emotions that she had never experienced before. The adoptee guilt/abandonment she felt was so strong that her relationship didn’t get solid with her mother for nearly 10 years. There was a lot of back and forth, with years of separation due to not knowing how to deal with these emotions and pushing them under the rug. Thankfully, the process has brought some healing and they now have a better relationship. Sinead lives in LA but meets up with her biological Mother and half brother each time she returns to Ireland.
A couple of months ago she found a half sister through ancestry.com, which was super exciting and not at all expected! They have been in contact and are really looking forward to meeting face to face when back in Ireland in December. Out of those conversations she has now also discovered that she has another 4 half siblings, which is incredible. There is no meeting planned with them just yet or her biological father, but she would love to see that happen in the future.
