@giantbear, thank you for this. I feel like crying. Nearly 54 years ago, a young, unwed woman gave birth to a child. The father was a married man. She decided to keep the girl, even though it was something that was frowned upon in those days. She loved her daughter dearly. She also kept seeing the married man. Fifteen months later she gave birth to another girl, by the same father.

It is a long, convoluted story, and I will blog about it somewhere in the near future. Long story short, though: the two sisters were given up for adoption.

My sister and I had the most wonderful parents, and to them, we were not adopted. We were the children that God gave them to nurture and love. They were fine parents, giving us a fine upbringing.

Many years later, we met our birth mother. She was a lovely woman, and although she never became our mother again, she became a close friend.

We never met our birth father, but we met our half brothers and - sisters. We have kept a close relationship with all of them.

But if you tell me "blood is thicker than water", I tell you, the blood that flows through my veins, well, it is the blood of the parents that brought us up.