At two days old, I was adopted through the Sacred Heart Catholic parish by a farmer and his wife from Wall. I was raised with a loving home by a family who always made it clear that I was theirs. From an early age, I knew I was adopted and understood it meant to be chosen. I was always their daughter regardless of my biological makeup.
Therefore, growing up, I never had a reason to “search for answers.” There was some curiosity about my ancestry, but it wasn’t enough to drive me to actively begin a search until after I was married. The questions began to surface during routine moments – like completing new patient paperwork for an upcoming doctor’s appointment. When I would reach the health history section of those questionnaires, I would simply write “Not Applicable.” In many ways, I was a walking question mark. What was my ethnic background? Were there health concerns that I needed to be aware of for myself and any future children?
After having my son, I knew that I had a responsibility to do the work to find whatever biological information I could—for us both. My hope was that if I could find someone from my immediate maternal or paternal family, I could then they might be able fill in the missing blanks, both in my head and on the routine medical forms. For years, my husband has always encouraged me to find members of my biological family. So for my first Mother’s Day, he gifted me DNA kits from three genetic testing sites.
The ancestry results were fascinating. While it was not all that surprising to find traces of European ancestry, the markers that piqued my interests were Romanian and Japanese. Looking at infant pictures of myself, there is no denying that I have some Asian features. What was remarkable was that it made up a quarter of my ancestry—meaning that one of my biological grandparents was fully Japanese! Since receiving those results, I have discovered that it was my paternal grandmother,Taeko Osa who married my paternal grandfather when he was stationed in Vietnam while serving in the U.S. Navy. I haven’t uncovered much more yet, but my husband and I are fully committed to exploring that path more extensively.
Although the process is slow, I look forward to discovering the unknown parts that make up who I am and sharing that journey with others who may also be searching for answers to their own question marks.