Florencia L. – PART 1

MY ADOPTION STORY – PART 1

And the day finally arrived.

The doorman rang the doorbell and Elena ran to answer.

– “There is a car for you Elena” – she heard through the door.

– “Ok, I’ll be there in a minute, thank you” – replied Elena feeling a strong pain in the pit of her stomach due to being so nervous for the past several days.

Elena searched for her things, grabbed the bouquet of white roses and the croissants she had bought to take, and she called the elevator. The time began to pass slowly. She had the feeling of having been waiting for the elevator for half an hour. Finally, it arrived and Elena was able to go down to the street and get on the car that was waiting for her.

– “Hi, where are you going Miss?” – The driver asked.

– “To 345 Alsina Street, in the Versailles neighborhood” – Replied Elena.
– “Do you know how to get there?” – She asked, pleading to herself that the man would answer yes.

She did not know the Versailles neighborhood, but she had checked where it was on the internet and what route she had to take from her home. However, she had already forgotten all the information she had found. She felt so nervous, due to the meeting she was going to have, that she couldn’t think about anything.

– “Yes, yes, of course. Don’t worry. And I’m going to go down a road where there is not going to be any traffic “- Replied the driver.

– “Thank you” – Elena sighed, relieved.

The car moved for ten minutes and Elena began to relax. She took a deep breath, rested her head on the seat and began to look out the window. It was a very sunny day. The sky was completely blue. It was neither cold nor hot. It was an autumn day, one of those days in Buenos Aires, when winter still hasn’t show up, but when summer has already said goodbye. The perfect climate. Elena thought that had to be a good sign.

An hour and a half went by, since Elena left her building, in the neighborhood of Recoleta. She knew that they should be close by now.

– “Don’t be nervous. Everything will turn out well” – She said to herself in a low voice.

– “Excuse me Miss, did you ask me anything?” – The driver said.

– “No. Sorry … I just spoke to myself”- Elena answered, wondering if her nerves would be noticed.

 – “We are almost there. Three more blocks and we’ll be at your destination”-The driver said.

My name is Florencia. I am ‘Elena’. This tale is part of my story.

I was born on June 14th., 1980, in Argentina, and I was given up for adoption. I arrived at my parents’ house, when I was only 10 days old.

I always knew that I was adopted. My parents told me about my adoption when I was 3 years old. They told me a story that I never forgot: “I was in heaven with God, waiting for my time to be born and live with my parents. But since my mother couldn’t have children, God decided to send me to the belly of another woman, so that my mom and dad could go pick me up at her house and bring me home”.

I always understood my adoption just as a different way of becoming part of a family. Moreover, my adoption was always something we talked about at home. We could have discussions about it and share our ideas, concerns and points of views. I could always ask about my biological parents, and, my adoptive parents, always told me that if I ever wanted to look for my biological family, they would help me and support me 100% (in Argentina records were never close for adoptees). The fact that my parents accepted that there is another part of my story that has nothing to do with them, and the fact that they were always able to talk to me about it, was very important for me. This helped me accept the sad side of my story; that part that nobody mentions: the sad side of adoption, which is the relinquishment of a child, regardless the reason.

Adoption has two sides: one side full of joy and the other side full of sadness. On the one hand, two people or one person, become the parents they so longed to be. On the other hand, a mother and father lose the possibility to raise their child, and a child is separated from their birth parents.