March 29, 2025 Twenty-three and Me...and You

The recent sale of bankrupted 23 and Me has brought the company into the forefront, creating so much controversy on whether or not personal data should be deleted to protect individual privacy. It's a very intimate decision.

If I may, I'd like to share now this service has impacted our family.

As many of you may know, our daughter was adopted at 4 days old, in a private adoption. We knew just enough information that should the necessity arise, we could find the selfless mama who trusted us with her baby. We promised each other that we would always be transparent about the adoption. At the time, there was still a bit of an expectation that adoption should remain secret. Not at our house. We were proud to be adoptive parents. We also agreed that, should she show good reason for wanting further information about her bio parents, we'd do what we could to answer her questions. We all need to know from where we came.

I was never afraid I'd be "replaced" by her wondering about her birth mother. So, at 16, she came to us and said she wanted to find her. Not out of curiosity, but more a need to know more about herself. 

This isn't meant to be evasive, but there are others whose privacy I feel should be protected, so understand when I don't go into details about the process of finding her bio mom.

We put the ball in her court, giving her the option of whether or not to allow our daughter to contact her. We also made sure that our child would understand if she wasn't open to contact.

Our fears were unfounded. 

She was there to see graduation. She got her opportunity to explain her difficulties in dealing with the guilt of letting her go. It became a privilege to have her as part of our family.

The only question remained. Who was the bio dad? Where was he?

It was shared with us that this person signed off his parental rights and she never saw him again. When asked if she wanted to look for him, she responded that she had no interest in meeting someone who didn't appear to be a good person.

This is where 23 and Me comes in...

Only a handful of years ago, our girl decided to find her other gene donor. She did the genetic test and the search began.

It was a complex process, and in the end, the person named was NOT her other parent.

If you know our girl, you are well aware that she is stubborn and unrelenting when she needs to know something. This became very important to her, so she persisted. As promised, the identity of those involved is protected, but know that she did find him...and his daughters. So she has half-sisters! She's met him, and his family, who welcomed her with open arms. Great ending, yes?

The point of all of this is, genetic testing can change lives for the better, at least in this case, it did. I would never think to do this now, with the instability of the world as it is. Ancestry is very important but luckily, I have other avenues to pursue without exposing my gene pool.

I felt it was important to share how the process impacted my family. Whether a person feels the need to have their tests deleted or not is not up to me. I just know what a blessing it was for all of us.

Thanks for stopping by.☘☘