The Avengers and Adoption

Just what is it with Hollywood and the movie industry these days that has to make stereotypical jokes? The Avengers isn't quite a comedy movie, but it does have its moments. The scene where Hulk slams Loki into the ground multiple times pretty much killed the entire theatre. I kinda expected to see people rolling down the stairs/aisles.

The subject of adoption over the years has been a serious one. Nothing funny about it. Those who were adopted were essentially given a second chance at life. Adoptees are not bad people. It's more of sociological and environmental issues that can shape a person's life.

Thor's flippant "He's adopted" comment could easily be better. Most likely a better line would have been "He's my brother, though he was adopted and his background was from those who are worse than us." Shows his love, but also his distaste for Loki's actions. Probably would have taken all of a minute to deliver that line. For those who have or haven't seen the Thor movie, that's still a good and neutral line.

We know children, in all their innocent wonder, can easily translate this into thinking that they're bad. In the Change.org petition, Marvel Comics: Marvel Comics - Apologize to Adoption Community!, Jamie made mention of children thinking just this.

One blog claims that Jamie's asking for a boycott. Not quite. If one reads the title carefully, it says "Marvel Comics: Marvel Comics - Apologize to Adoption Community!" Nowhere in the text does it have the word boycott. Just the word apologize. Big difference in definitions.

Adopted people aren't bad. They've just been given a second chance at life when the birth parents can't or won't take care of them for various reasons. My birthmom had her reason, and that one I can understand and don't blame her for putting me up for adoption.

Growing up Deaf - Part 2

My Adoption

Up to my birth, birth mom was, in her words, a recluse in her home, going out for her classes and meals. She took vitamins and that kind of thing. All this most likely kept her healthy enough to keep us from having rubella. Unfortunately, she gave me up for adoption right after birth. Even worse, her mother, who would have been my grandmother, never approved of her marriage to my birthdad. Birth mom and dad were students at a local community college.

It was two months later when my adoptive parents took me home. Adoptive dad was a California highway patrol officer who passed away in the line of duty a year later and it made front-page news. Then adoptive mom married my second dad and they were married for nearly 25 years until his passing in 1990 in Kentucky. She attended a grief support group, and met someone there. They were married for nearly two years til he passed away of a recurring illness.

I'm wondering how my life would have been different had birth mom not given me up for adoption. Would my health have been better? Would I have been hearing rather than deaf? What would I be doing now?

Adoptive mom had told me around a younger age about my adoption. Fortunately, she had all the papers and I went through them many times over the years. I didn't start searching til much later. I spent a little time at the library and the bookstore doing some searches including online searches. That plus some via email, but this one person wanted a bit too much money to check some things. Every time I searched, I went a little further than last time since there was more information available.

Fast forward to right after 9/11. Birth mom found me.

Next - How birth mom found me.

Growing Up Deaf - Part 1

One of the things about growing up deaf is that you learn to come up with little coping mechanisms to deal with various things as you grow up. You still use them even in adulthood up til your passing. In my case, I was born hearing, then it started going downhill when I was age 5. I learned to talk before then.

Over time, I never quite found out the cause of my hearing loss. Mom told me it was nerve deafness, also known as sensori-neural. Over time, I heard my generation in the early 60s had an epidemic of German measles/rubella.

Fast forward to around summer 2006 when I was preparing to attend classes at George Mason University. I had to get together my health records, but for some reason, seems some may have gotten lost and mom couldn't find them, though she sent me what she had. I talked with a couple people at the local health department who mentioned that I could get my blood titers checked for immunity to certain diseases, namely mumps and rubella.

As it turns out, I have immunity to the mumps, which is the reason why I lost my hearing. Interestingly enough, in my files, I have a letter from a doctor who thought the mumps caused my hearing loss. However, what of the rubella part? It seems I never had an MMR (Measles Mumps Rubella) immunization when I was younger. I had to go to the health department for just that. I beat the deadline by a few days to get in all my immunization info GMU's Student Health Services office. GMU said it was mandatory that I go through Orientation, which gave me all the info I needed for post-admissions requirements and class registration.

What of the time of my birth? I had to ask my birthmom about that. Adoptive mom was always supportive of me finding my birthmom. More on that later.

Has anyone had their blood titers drawn and checked for any kind of immunity? Was the information for personal use or something else?