Joan Griffin asks, “Who am I?”

“I’ve always said I won the lottery when my adoptive parents chose me,” Joan Griffin says, “but I grew up feeling ‘different,’ because the people I was closest to didn’t look, sound, or act like me. When I was thirty-seven, my birth mother found me and I met my maternal half-siblings. Later, I met my half-siblings on my birth father’s side. Even though they were strangers at first, meeting my half-siblings was amazing. In many ways, they looked, sounded, and even acted like me! (That’s me,  sitting between two of my half-sisters.) We have become close and I visit with them frequently. Feeling this affinity with my half-siblings, learning my ‘other’ family history, and solving mysteries that haunted me, has helped me resolve my lifelong question: ‘Who am I?’

I’m so proud to introduce you to my mom, pictured here, as she held me on the day I was adopted. Remembering life with my adoptive parents, I can honestly say, I really did win the lottery that day!”