New Blog (Sorry!)

Hello everyone,

I apologize but I have found a new blog that seems to fit my needs better.  It's a site called Posterous which allows easier and quicker posting.  I have trouble with updating blogs so hopefully this will help me!  You will find the link below so please subscribe to the RSS feed or bookmark the site!  I am updating on there a lot more often than here.  It's like the perfect marriage between Twitter and blogging.

See you around and I will still be keeping updates on your blogs!

http://stefka.posterous.com/

Adoptee Rights Day

This coming Tuesday (July 21st) is Adoptee Rights Day.  I find it so fitting that this is near the time that I was born and adopted.  The end of July is always a time for me to reflect, even harder than I usually do, about my adopted status in the world.  My birthday always rolls around and I always think about my birth parents a lot.  I'm sure they are out there somewhere also wondering about me on my birthday too.  It's been 22 years this year since I have seen my real parents, and since they have seen me.

But, finding them wouldn't be so difficult, did you know that?  Right now, with the laws and "confidentiality" rules in place to protect my parents' rights I can get no further than my adoption agency telling me they didn't want their contact information given out to me.  But there is another way.  Locked away in the files and files of the Utah Vital Records is my birth certificate.  My REAL birth certificate.  The one I am holding in my hands right now is what the government wants me to think is the real one.

Issued weeks after my real birth, it has my adopted parents name as my real parents and the name my adopted parents gave me as my real name.  But somewhere in Utah there lies my actual birth certificate, issued when I was born.  It has the name my parents gave me when I was born and my birth parents' names.  It is all right there, but I am not allowed to see it.  My own birth certificate.

This is what Adoptee Rights Day is focusing on this year.  We are demanding our rights to see our real birth certificates.  They are ours and we should have the full rights like all Americans to see our own birth certificates.  I could go on and on about this, but a member from an adoptee rights forum I am currently a participator in formulates it better.  This is a comment regarding adoptive parents and their often selfish motives to make adoption all about themselves.  This is has been made apparent from the soon-to-be-released movie, "Orphan" which had a little bit of a poorly-worded tagline and what this current member is replying to.

You see, this little line: "It must be hard to love an adoptive child as your own."has the self-absorbed adoptive community so lathered up that it is laughable.  I find it so interesting (and plain disgusting) how these people are so concerned about one line in a movie but could care less that their adoptive children are treated as second-class citizens in this country.  

Adoptees in 44 states in this country have our birth certificates permanently sealed from us upon our adoption.  (The cry babies that are writing to you about your movie as the ones who get to have their names put on our (adoptees) "Amended" birth certificates listing them as our (adoptees) biological parents.)  These falsified documents are what adoptees are forced to use as "legal" identification for the rest of their lives.  Our original birth certificates containing our birth names and names of our biological parents are forever sealed from us in some dusty, vital records vault.  Our heritages, and our true ethnicities are forever sealed from us.  This is a violation of an adopted person's civil rights.  Does anyone in the adoptive parent camp protest this?  Nope.  Why?  Because it suits them. 

It is time for true change to a system that hasn't updated itself since the 50s in some instances.  It is time for adoptees to stop accepting a life that wasn't even their choice.  It is time for us to have the same freedoms and stop being victims to our parents' own immaturity.  I refuse to pay for the sins of my parents by having my own identity being stolen and hidden from me, among other things.  I DEMAND MY REAL BIRTH CERTIFICATE NOW!

Please, join me and others like me on July 21st and demand that adoptees be given equal rights to know a part of ourselves that was stolen and locked away.  We already have enough to deal with as children of adoption and foster care such as mental illness, physical disability and abandonment and behavioral issues.  Please, help us gain some control in life where it was robbed from us by selfish adults.  Demand to your local state government and to our national government that adoptees rights must be given.

Moving to Denver

It has certainly been a while since I have updated this blog. My life has been pretty busy though, so it's understandable that I wouldn't really have time to comment about things that have come my way recently.

Today is Day 4 of living in Denver, CO (as if there is any other Denver out there that matters :P) and so far it has been blissful, but stressful at the same time. This is independence at it's finest and most problematic, so it has been an interesting adjustment. Besides a little monetary boost from the parentals before moving out here, I am all on my own with everything. Some things have been trial and error, but I am feeling great about finally being "grown up" enough to be on my own (and far enough from home that I have no other option but to stick it out!).

I am also living with my fiance for the first time. We have basically spent every single day and night together since we started dating, but this is the first time we are actually co-owners of a place. Despite what most people might believe, this is actually a new situation for both of us. We have to combine both our spaces and preferences into one area. While we have similar tastes in most aspects, there are areas that we do differ on and it has been interesting to figure those things out. But, it has been a lot of fun setting up a place where we own everything and being really independent. Once we finish all of the unpacking (and there is still a lot to go), I will be so excited to share pictures of our new place! However, we are already looking for a new apartment for next summer because we are looking for more of a long-term place to stay, instead of the "temporary-ness" that comes with being on-campus. Luckily the University area has TONS of options for very close off-campus apartments, so I don't think we will be having much of a problem. I love being in a metro area for graduate school! It makes life so much easier!

Other than unpacking and getting adjusted to the new place, there really isn't much else going on in my life. Some interviews for my field internship are coming up (one at Kaiser Permante on Monday!) and I am going to begin the process of looking for a job next week as well. One of my father's contacts is here in Denver and he agreed to help me look for a job. We will see what comes up!!!

Happy 4th of July everyone! I hope everyone enjoys their weekend off :)