“The movement of adopted adults to search for their birth families is strong and growing in the United States today. If you’re an adult who was adopted as a child and are now considering searching for your birth family, Searching for a Past will help prepare you emotionally and psychologically both for your search and for what you find. Drawing from the experiences of dozens of adult adoptees, adoptive parents, and birth parents, Searching for a Past will show you how adoption has affected other adopted persons, what motivated them to search for a birth family connection, what they found, and how they handled their discovery. You’ll also learn about: 1. the importance of joining a search support group, 2. how to prepare for the impact of the search on your birth family, your adopted family, and your own family, 3. special considerations for teenage or mid-life searchers, 4. what to do when your birth parents don’t want to be found, 5. how to incorporate birth family members into your life.”