This show I watch,
Long Lost Family, is always interesting, but its most recent episode nearly brought me to tears. It's a reality show about people somehow affected by adoption, seeking their biological families. Friday's episode was so compelling, I just watched it again.
This 50-year-old woman--Caucasian--always felt like something was wrong; with her blond hair and light skin, she stuck out like a sore thumb in her
Hispanic family. But her parents, both now deceased, never hinted that she was adopted.
Meanwhile, another woman had grown up with a sister who didn't resemble anyone in their family, partly because of darker skin. At some point, her parents told her that in the hospital, some days after the baby's birth, her father actually questioned if they'd been given the right baby. Her mom said yes--but after they'd gone home, and they'd already bonded with the baby, she said 'I don't know if she is.'
She wasn't. No one knows how, when, or why--and the hospital no longer exists--but two girls were switched. Think of how profound that is...
Two biological sisters spent 50 years apart, not because one or both had been given up for adoption, but because of a
mistake. Two girls grew up wondering why they looked so different from their families--and two sets of parents knew they had given birth, not adopted...so...? One girl never got to experience her birth culture, didn't learn Spanish, didn't have favorite Mexican dishes passed down to her. Two sets of parents never knew, really
knew, that they raised another couple's child.
Given the pre-DNA testing era in which this occurred, plus the fact that both families had bonded, what could/should they have done? The babies could've been checked against their footprints. Blood typing
may have provided some answers. I don't know.
I felt awful for the biological sisters. When they met, it was clear that they felt robbed...and rightly so.
)