ADOPTED AT BIRTH

Adopted at birth, Green Bay, Wisc. sophomore Liz Ghormley gave offered a journalism class on Tuesday afternoon her insights on how adoption has shaped her life.

Ghormley’s birth mom was pregnant with her at 15 and soon had the realization that she could not bring a child into an unfit home, Ghormley said.

Ghormley was the second child adopted by Rod and Rebakah Ghormley, who were unable to have children on their own.

Her sister, Olivia, was also adopted at birth by their parents. Ghormley is so grateful to have a sister that she can “relate” to because “people who aren’t adopted don’t know what it feels like,” Ghormley said.

Ghormley has been educated on her adoption since age 4. “I’ve known my whole life,” Ghormly said. When Ghormley lived in Seattle prior to moving to Wisconsin, everyone knew she was adopted because “adoption is a lot more common in large cities,” Ghormley said. After moving, she was bullied by students at her new school due to comparisons made between her and another adopted child who had learning disabilities.

“I think that I would resent my parents a lot if they hadn’t have told me,” Ghormley said. Ghormley said she is glad she knew about adoption from such a young age, “It’s my whole identity.”

Ghormley said that her adopted parents are very overprotective and “old school”, and her birth mom shares more personality traits with Ghormley since they are closer in age but “I’ve never known anything else and they have never known anything else,” Ghormley said of her adopted parents. “My parents gave me the best possible upbringing I could ask for and they gave me everything I needed and more,” Ghormley said.

Ghormley followed her birth mother on Instagram and that led to her birth mother sending her a message that said, “I’ve been waiting for this moment.”

Ghormley finally met her birth mother in Lubbock last year. Ghormley said she expected the meeting to be awkward, but she did not feel that way at all. Her birth mother even brought a scrapbook the photos that her adopted mother would send of Ghormley and her birth mother explained where she was in her own life when she was receiving the photos. “It was really sentimental,” Ghormley said.

Ghormley and her birth mother have a “friend relationship, not a mother daughter relationship” because “she is not my mom,” Ghormley said.

“I think adoption is a great thing,” Ghormley said. Ghormley said she would definitely adopt if she could not have children naturally, but she wants her own biological children in the future.

“You don’t have to be blood, to be a parent to somebody. Being a parent to somebody is more like what you do for them or what you provide,” Ghormley said.