Samantha Shields grew up knowing she was adopted. Born in California during the Baby Scoop Era, she was adopted by a couple from Napa following a two month stay in foster care. From an early age, Samantha (Sam) failed to bond with her adopting mother, and when her father died shortly after she turned seven, Sam had fantasies he wasn’t really dead and would one day come and get her. She also secretly wished her original mother might someday find her. This never happened.
At eighteen, Samantha discovered background information about her original mother from the Department of Social Services (the agency that handled the adoption.) Her original parents became more real to her than ever, and she vowed to one day find them. After a multi-year search–attending ALMA meetings, having her original birth certificate unsealed by the courts and learning her original name, Theresa Mary Hewitt, then processing each of these discoveries in their own time–Sam finally located her original mother, Kathie, when she was twenty-seven. Immediately, Sam flew to Boston where Kathie had lived before her mother had sent her to a maternity home in San Francisco to give birth to Sam in secret. There, she met her extended clan, including her grandmother, uncles, and their wives–a truly overwhelming experience. While in Boston, Kathie disclosed to Sam she was conceived as the result of rape, a fact that would take Sam decades to process.
Following a twenty-two year reunion with her original mother, Sam is currently working on a memoir about her experiences of reconnecting with her original parents and the many obstacles that are fundamentally inherent in reunion. She writes, “While I’ve often been asked about the more rewarding aspects of my reunion–and there have been many–rarely have I been questioned about the hardships, the barriers, the challenges and the breaking points. No one has ever asked why so many adoption reunions break down within the first few years after making contact, or why, after eight years, nearly half of those in an adoption reunion have abandoned the relationship altogether.” It is her hope that adoption will be wholly reconceived.
