Adam’s story | “It is a daily struggle to not let my past overcome my present.”

by Them Before Us | Apr 15, 2024 | Stories

My parents were married when I was born. They divorced when I was six years old. I have a sister that is four years younger than me. My mom moved around within the small town where we lived. I recall having eight different addresses before I was 12. Each one had a...

Christina’s Story | “I cannot understand why chasing selfish happiness at the expense of providing a child a stable home and family would seem logical.”

by Them Before Us | Apr 8, 2024 | Stories

I was raised in a divorce shared-custody structured household. If you ask my parents separately who raised me, they would each say they were responsible. My parents decided that No Fault Divorce was the best thing for our “family” when I was less than one year old. I...

Johanna’s story | “I still recognize that what happened to me was a trauma, a very serious one which will forever impact my life and relations to other people.”

by Them Before Us | Mar 29, 2024 | Stories

My name is Johanna, I am now 42 years old. I am an adoptee from Sweden (now living in Denmark). I grew up in a middle-class home in a house with my adoptive parents (husband and wife) and with a little sister who is a biological child to our parents. When I got...

Michael R.’s story | “It is a no-true-win situation for a child to grow up as donor-conceived.”

by Them Before Us | Oct 17, 2023 | Stories

I was a donor-conceived (IVF) child and a twin born in 1995. My mother desperately wanted to have children but with no prospect of a traditional family. She lived in central California in the 90’s and was near a larger IVF facility. She proceeded to try multiple...

Andrew’s story | “My mom came out as gay in 2017 and ended my parents’ marriage of 33 years…I felt like my whole existence was called into question.”

by Them Before Us | Jul 5, 2023 | Stories

My mom came out as gay in 2017 and ended my parents’ marriage of 33 years. She had been cheating on my dad with her mistress she met through a church group. I’m not sure how long their relationship had been like that, but we had known the other woman for...