Finding Me In a Paper Bag: Searching For Both Sides Now

by Sally Howard

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0974059404
• ISBN13: 9780974059402
• Release Date: June 2003
• Publisher: Gateway Press
• Length: 244 Pages
• Weight: 0.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.5" x 0.8" x 5.8"

Customer Reviews

Adoption Loss

As an adopted adult I found this book a very interesting read. My heart went out to the author who was an abandoned baby and had little or no chance of finding her birthparents. She later went on to relinquish a child herself whom she was later reunited with. I found it interesting that although she was adopted herself it didn't seem to give her much insight into her daughter's psyche. She came at the relationship very much from the angle of a bithmother. I felt it quite sad that she couldn't have tapped more into the invaluable resources that being adopted gave her to understand her daughter. I really enjoyed this book and is a valuable insight into the mind of a birthmother. It also shows that reunion is a very difficult and emotional process for all involved. People need to go into it with their eyes wide open and expect the unexpected, read as much as you can on the subject and gets lots of support.

Soul-stirring, Thought provoking, Eye opening..

The author spent hundreds of hours and traveled many miles trying to uncover the secrets of her birth. Being slipped into a flimsy paper bag and deposited on the porch of a lonely farm house would make anyone wonder: Why? Why not in a nice basket, on the steps of a church, on a door step in the city? Or on the steps of an orphanage? Did the young woman who placed her on the porch and scurry away know whose porch she was leaving her baby on? Sally's quest to find the answers took her to several states, into libraries, police stations, hospitals, churches, courthouses and into many homes interviewing people who were around at the time of her abandonment. She consulted psychics and others. Sally's also writes poignantly and vividly of her search for the daughter she gave up for adoption, its ups and downs and twists and turns, that are typical of all too many adoption searches. Read the book. Think about what it would be like to be abandoned in a paper bag, a ladies hatbox, the back seat of a car, under a stairwell, in a garbage can or a dumpster. Sadly, it happens all too often. And when it does, chances of the abandonded baby ever finding out who she or he is are practically nil. Who wants to be identiied as being so callous, thoughtless or unfeeling? Accused of such unconscionable, and in many abandonment cases, criminal behavior? Hardly anyone, apparently. Very few abandoned babies are ever claimed by their families. They are left to wander through life ever searching, seeking, peering into unknown faces, looking for their own.

Touching and honest story

As an adoptee I know the hurt and pain that goes along with that but I have never seen it written about more honestly and clearly than in this book. It is a very touching story and a remarkable book. I cried and laughed and felt with Sally every step of the way. It is a great book and a great read and it will especially touch the heart of anyone involved in adoption in any way.I would recommend it to anyone and I have loaned out my book many times.

Finding Me in a Paper Bag

Of all the books I have read about adoption or from a birthmother's point of view, this is the most honest. As the mother searches for both her birthmother and her only daughter she gave up for adoption she lets the reader experience what she is going through. Searching for answers she shares her research with the reader. The 50's era are discussed, bonding verses attachment delved into. A grown up Safe Haven baby, she gives a voice to all those now being legally abandoned in hospitals, mostly with no questions asked.