My story — the beginning

I was born in August 1967 in Montreal, Quebec. Nine months later, Edna and Tom Bird, a couple from Bedford (a small town in the Eastern Townships) adopted me.

I have always known that I was adopted (so no identity crisis here due to a surprise discovery). Although I had, for the most part, a seemingly idyllic upbringing; I have struggled for a good portion of my life with a feeling of not belonging or fitting in, of being different.

I was adopted. My parents were the age of my other friends’ grandparents. I was the youngest of all my cousins. I was the biggest kid in my class many years. I was an only child. I was also a very sensitive, intelligent child — the seeds for a lifelong search for my “tribe” were planted in those years.

My parents could not have children and I was always told that they chose me, so I never felt like I had an awful lot of angst about being adopted. I didn’t really spend a lot of time thinking about it, to be honest.

The angst came with being told by my mother that “it would break her heart if I were to look for my biological family”. Fortunately for her, the adoption records in Quebec have been closed until the summer of 2018.

And this is what has brought me here: in 6 days I will be meeting my very first biological relatives, an aunt and cousin, in Northern British Columbia.

I cannot wait!!!!