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Show lltIIIIIIIIIIIO!lllllllllIC2IW!lllll!IUI IIIICllllllllllinil!lllllllllU!l!llinilliniillllIIIIIOIIIIIIIIIIIC3IIIIIHIllllC:illlili:!li!C. Listening and Living Tammy Thompson Dear Tammy: I read, with interest, your last week's article on "free love" and its complications. Sorry to say I am a 14-year old girl, the product of "free love," and it isn't pleasant. I do not know who my father was and hardly remember my mother. I was adopted and given a wonderful home, but there's still that anxiety and question: "Who am I?" Furthermore, my mother must not have loved me much to put me out for adoption or else she loved me so much that she wanted me to have all the advantages ad-vantages of life that were snatched from her when she found herself "caught-in-the-web," as your last article mentioned. men-tioned. After some ten years of being a healthy, happy, adopted child, why should I let it bother me now that I'm almost an adult? Anxiety Sal ARE growing up. You are almost al-most on the brink of becoming becom-ing an adult, and certainly it's no reflection on you that you'd like to know "who you are." If we didn't want to know, we might find ourselves on a low plane of intellectuality. Animals no longer care after their young have reached maturity but human hu-man beings do care. Your mother, no doubt, was faced with so many complex problems at the time of your' birth and the three years following fol-lowing that she had to "make a choice for your sake. She chose to allow you to grow up in a healthy, normal home with the love and affection of two parents (not just one). You will never know the heartache and indecision that your mother probably went through trying to decide what was best for you, especially if she kept you until you were old enough to slightly remember her, which you say you do. If you knew just why your mother let you out for adoption, you might be experiencing far more anxiety about yourself than just the question, "Who am I?" MiiiMiiiiiifiM(tifitiirmiitlllMlMimilMHI!r' Dear Anxiety Sal: Your anxiety and inquisitive-ness inquisitive-ness about your progenitors are only natural symptoms that you ....a....... ltlll UUIMI4II 1 1 IIIIIIIIMII II I III Hllk. II III 1 1 II I llkill I UN HH 14. Listening and Living Tammy Thompson (Continued from page 4) A scientific study of this problem pro-blem recommends that when children are adopted that it be a clean, decisive break for the sake of both the child and-or the parents. Your new parents took you into their home to fill the void "both in your life and theirs. They have showered you with love, affection, and guidance, for which you should be grateful. grate-ful. I know a family with several adopted children from various races and nationalities, and undoubtedly un-doubtedly as they reach the brink of becoming an adult that they too will ask themselves: "Who am I?" It matters not from whence they came but how well they blend into their present pre-sent mode of life, each to be- iiiiiiiiiiMiMiiiiiiaiiiiiiiiiiiiiMiiiiiiiiiiifiniiiiiiciiiiiiiti come "captain of his own soul." And so I say to you that the "adopted family" is often happier hap-pier than the regular family because be-cause every member of the "adopted family" feels a keen responsibility for being able to have each other, and for fulfilling ful-filling the void in the family unit. Not until you're the proud mother of a darling baby will you know what YOUR MOTHER must have sacrificed in order that YOU might grow up in a normal, healthy home filled with love and affection and PARENTS! PAR-ENTS! Make your adopted mother feel like Abraham Lincoln Lin-coln felt about his mother, namely: "All that I am or ever hope to be. I owe to my ANGEL MOTHER." Tammy Thompson iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiMiiiiiiiitiiiiiiiiiitiiiiiiiiiMiiiititiiimiiin |