Left Yet Limitless

07/15/2026

I thought I had trust issues.

I thought I was just too sensitive.

I had no idea my story started long before I could remember it.

Part 1 | Baby Girl Smith

07/11/2026

This is something that is not easily understood….or maybe just ignored.

07/10/2026

One of the biggest misconceptions about adoption is that it's a one day thing. Papers are signed by two parties, and that's it -- you're adopted.

Wrong.

Adoption is a lifelong journey. It influences identity, relationships, trust, attachment, belonging, family dynamics, medical history, self-worth, grief, and even the way we see ourselves in the world.

That doesn't mean adoption is the only thing about me, or about us as adoptees.

Adoptees carry so many roles in life. But adoption is not an event that happened and then ended. For adoptees, it is a lens through which countless life experiences are filtered.

When people tell me to stop focusing on the past, and simply concentrate on my present and future, it is frustrating, maddening and everything in between. I want them to know that adoption is in every corner of my life because I am in every corner of my life, and there is no where I can go to get away from adoption. It is part of who I currently am, and will be whether anyone wants to accept that or not, it is the case.

06/23/2026

06/23/2026

Maybe that’s the lesson Baby Girl Smith spent a lifetime learning.

The problem was never that she wasn’t worthy.

The problem was that she believed she had to earn what should have been freely given.

Love.

Belonging.

Being chosen.

And maybe some of us are still learning that.

06/22/2026

The non-adopted are not experts on the adopted.

06/19/2026

One question kept me stuck for years:

“What’s wrong with me?”

Then my therapist asked a different question:

“What happened to you?”

That question changed everything.

Because maybe Baby Girl Smith wasn’t born believing she was unworthy.

Maybe she learned it.

Part 5 of the Baby Girl Smith story.

06/18/2026

No….we aren’t looking for sympathy, just understanding.

I have heard both adoptees and non-adoptees say that it's a fallacy that adoptees have a more challenging life than anyone else.

Some have suggested that we're simply too sensitive or that we've convinced ourselves we have hardships the general population does not have.

I have come to believe something different.

I don't necessarily believe adoptees have entirely different problems than everyone else.

I believe we experience those same problems differently.

For example, everyone experiences rejection at some point in life. But for adoptees, rejection can hit differently because it touches a wound that began before we had words for it.

Everyone experiences loss. But for many adoptees, loss can feel heavier because our lives began with a profound loss, whether we consciously remember it or not.

Everyone experiences questions about identity, belonging, abandonment, trust, and relationships. But adoption can shape how those experiences are felt, interpreted, and carried.

This isn't about competition. It's not about saying adoptees have it worse than everyone else. It's about recognizing that our earliest experiences matter.

The reality is that no life is problem-free. Every human being carries burdens.

But I no longer believe it's accurate to say that adoptees experience those burdens in exactly the same way as everyone else.

To acknowledge that is not being too sensitive.

It's not self-pity, or creating problems that don’t exist. It is recognizing that beginnings and life experience matters.

And when your life begins with separation, loss, and unanswered questions, it can influence how you experience many of the losses and relationships that follow.

Understanding that isn't about making excuses.

It's about making sense of ourselves.

06/16/2026

I thought I was searching for my biological family.

What I was really searching for was an answer.

Why wasn’t I kept?

That’s the question so many adoptees carry, whether we say it out loud or not.

Not because we’re looking for someone to blame.

Because every child wants to know they were wanted.

Part 4 of the Baby Girl Smith story.