Stephanie's family was so wonderful she never questioned her adoption, her culture, her birth parents and most of all, her identity. Her mother said she was Italian American, just like her family, so she became a master of disguise (and denial). It wasn't until the pandemic and her parents passed away that she allowed herself to view her life through the eyes she always hated. Stephanie writes to explain the unexplainable. Adoption is both beautiful and traumatic—and one experience doesn’t lessen the other.

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