Spotlight Presentation: "Abandoned at Birth: Searching for the Arms That Once Held Me" by Janet Sherlund

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Spotlight Presentation => "Abandoned at Birth: Searching for the Arms That Once Held Me" by Janet Sherlund

Only 10 states make birth records available to American-born adoptees. For adult adoptees born during the mid-20^th century era of closed adoptions, this presents a painful obstacle to discovering their origins and ending the driving hunger to know their own identity. 

Janet Sherlund poignantly captured her journey finding her origins in her memoir,  "ABANDONED AT BIRTH: Searching for the Arms That Once Held Me". In her talk, Sherlund paints a vivid portrait of the detachment and longing of an adopted child and the lifelong quest to find her biological mother, the trauma caused by this primal separation, and the dogged determination it takes to face the forces of opposition—both internal and external—to finally attain answers.

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Janet Sherlund raised her family and served on nonprofit boards in education, health, and the cultural arts before writing her memoir, Abandoned at Birth. Her single most significant life event was being given up for adoption at birth. Being adopted made her feel as though she was living a “borrowed life,” undermined her sense of trust and personal value, and impacted every decision she made. It also led to a lifelong quest to find her biological mother with the hope of finally feeling a tether to this world, a sense of belonging, and ultimately, herself. Her memoir fulfilled a dream of becoming a published author, as well as raising awareness about loss and grief in adoption and why it takes more than love to survive that trauma. A graduate of Colgate University, Sherlund lives on the island of Nantucket off the coast of Massachusetts with Rick, her husband of forty-five years. Abandoned at Birth is Sherlund’s first book.

(information from Google Books website)