Hello and welcome to all of my readers!

I’m excited to share my story with all of you and walk you through not only my journey as an adoptee that found her biological parents, but also the journey of all of the messy life that happens before and after that that you don’t see on all of the adoption reunion shows. A little bit about me:  I’m currently a married mother of two adult daughters and along with a successful 20-year career in finance, I am spending a little more time writing, pursuing entrepreneurial endeavors and connecting with people who have gone through similar circumstances whether it is difficult family relationships, being a working mom, adoption, or sick or dying parents. My husband and I live on the West Coast and are avid hikers and dog lovers with a rescued Great Dane and Greyhound that were at my feet while writing much of this book. (Although our rescued cat often runs the household.)  I’m also a huge yoga enthusiast, which became a much healthier coping mechanism than Cabernet during the most difficult times in my life during ‘The Last Year.’ Since the last three injuries I’ve had are from yoga, I think it’s also safe to assume that I haven’t quite mastered it yet. The last one landed me in a boot for 6 weeks, and I was too embarrassed to admit that I damaged a tendon in my foot going into a resting pose in yoga so I lied to most of my work colleagues and told them it was from a skydiving accident.  At least two of them believed me.

You will probably figure out pretty quickly that I have lived most of my life figuring it out as I go along.  That turned out better sometimes than others. Parenting was one of life’s experiments and we learned a great deal from having our first daughter and got a little better at the parenting thing the second time around. We figured that we’d be pretty awesome parents by the third time around but ended up stopping at two since we greatly feared being outnumbered. You’ll learn a little about them in the book, but they’ll probably end up writing their own book about us someday, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it came in a 10-part series. My husband and I have given them plenty of material!

I welcome you into my world, which you will quickly find out is usually complicated, often challenging, sometimes funny, and always very, very real. I didn’t sugar coat the mess because it wasn’t sugar coated for me. I hope you enjoy this journey of resilience, survival and forgiveness and even more, I hope you discover more strength in yourself next time you’re faced with difficult times. I’m looking forward to connecting!

-Amelia Banis