Review by Sharon Lorenzo

Janet Sherlund is a lovely friend who has just published the very moving story of her search for her birth parents, having been adopted when her biological mother became pregnant in high school and turned her over at birth to an agency. Her biological father did not even know she existed.

Her search is timely as the Chinese government recently announced the end of their forced, one child per family rule, which has resulted in 82,000 children being sent to new families in America since 1992. Janet found that there are 5 million adopted children in the USA today. Only ten states allow their adoption records to be opened in the USA: Alabama, Alaska, Colorado, Connecticut, Kansas, Maine, New Hampshire, New York, Oregon and Rhode Island. The others prefer to protect the rights of privacy of the original parents. Janet was very lucky to find a woman in New Jersey, Gloria Smith, from the Children’s Aid and Family Services Agency of New Jersey, who encouraged her to contact her birth parents. She began by contacting her mother. Shirlie, a woman of 75 years who was on her second marriage, refused to meet Janet at first.

Gloria encouraged Janet to try to locate her birth father, who was a retired and widowed New York State Trooper in January of 2014. When called, he was just thrilled to learn about Janet, and they met and spent lots of time together over the next two years before his death. She also met the other siblings in his family, and they were thrilled to welcome Janet into their midst.

Janet is a woman of great strength, and she refused to give up the effort to reunite with her birth mother. All her feelings of displacement, loss, grief, denial and bewilderment as to her origins, kept her going. With Gloria’s help she reached out to the children of Shirlie, and they too were very gracious and helpful. Finally, she had a reunion with her birth mom at age 61. Unlike her very loving father Larry, Shirlie was chilly but at last Janet could close those hurtful feelings and move forward.

Married to a wonderful husband, Rick Sherlund, they have two sons and a new granddaughter. Janet is sharing her search story to encourage other adoptees who feel the need to find their true origins. I have attended a few of her book talks and was moved to tears hearing about her many years in college at Colgate University and beyond where she still felt a huge piece of herself unidentified. One source that was helpful to her is the book, The Primal Wound: Understanding the Adopted Child by Nancy Verrier. All Janet’s work since 2010 is now in print for others to enjoy. I heartily encourage readers to jump into this very moving story.

This photo of a rainbow off the front porch of her summer home on Nantucket Island in Massachusetts is a harbinger of the good luck that finally brought peace, love and joy to a well- deserving woman. Her patience, persistence, and magnificent story is a treasure for us all.