An interview with Kelley Baumgartner an adoptee who found her birthmother via a public social media poster search. You’ve likely seen her Facebook post where she held up a poster with personal details in an attempt to be able to connect with her biological family. She shares about the effects this has had on her reunion, and about her relationship with her adoptive parents.

Show Notes

Full episode transcript here.

Topics We Discussed

Kelley’s social media search via poster on Facebook went viral with over 200,000 shares
Responses from the public during her search
Adoptive parents helped her search
Kelley always wanted to know and search, even from a young age
Concern for her adoptive mom during the search
Birthmother sees post, but waits to contact Kelley because she needed to tell her husband (no one in her family knew about Kelley)
Met mother’s day weekend of the same year (6 months after first connecting)
Reunion now: once a month conversations with her birthmother, not much of a connection with her sister; Kelley’s husband is good friends with Kelley’s brother
The publicity has taken a toll on their relationship; her birthmother was forced to tell everyone in her family and friends about Kelley in a short time
Searching for her biological father, she’s pretty sure that she found him (he’s now deceased)
Feeling the gratitude of adoption for her own situation
Faith and her adoption journey
Balancing the gratitude and happiness of her upbringing with the loss and trauma of adoption
Therapy after about a year into reunion; marriage and anxiety issues
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