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Column: Barbara Sumner – The Adoption Game Show

May 23, 2019

Column: Barbara Sumner – If adoption secrecy were a game show, they’d call it, ‘how much do you really want this?’ Because I am adopted, I have no birth story. However, the state holds a large number of files on me. Legal documents, doctors notes, feeding recipes and home visit comments. Through these documents, I ... <a title="Column: Barbara Sumner – The Adoption Game Show" class="read-more" href="https://eveningreport.nz/2019/05/23/barbara-sumner-column-the-adoption-game-show/" aria-label="Read more about Column: Barbara Sumner – The Adoption Game Show">Read more</a>

CoveragePost

The baby or the fridge

February 14, 2019

Column: Barbara Sumner – 1960 was a big year for my adopting parents. First came the infertility diagnosis. Then a new baby arrived with little warning and no fanfare. Followed within days by a new refrigerator. I was one of over 103,000 New Zealand babies forcibly removed from my single mother. Her dying mother sent ... <a title="The baby or the fridge" class="read-more" href="https://eveningreport.nz/2019/02/14/the-baby-or-the-fridge/" aria-label="Read more about The baby or the fridge">Read more</a>

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Consider youself one of us

January 17, 2019

Column: Barbara Sumner – As a child, my family saw the musical Oliver. For days after, my adopting mother hummed and sang the theme tune: Consider yourself one of us Consider yourself at home Consider yourself one of the family ….etc etc The song is a bit of an earworm. I’d forgotten it and the ... <a title="Consider youself one of us" class="read-more" href="https://eveningreport.nz/2019/01/17/consider-youself-one-of-us/" aria-label="Read more about Consider youself one of us">Read more</a>

CoveragePost

Strange fruit

November 23, 2018

Column: Barbara Sumner – There have always been inconsistencies in my birth story. The dates, the people involved, the actual circumstances. All missing, suspect or manufactured. As an adopted person I have no legal right to know anything other than the story my adopting parents chose to tell. So I decided to challenge that. I ... <a title="Strange fruit" class="read-more" href="https://eveningreport.nz/2018/11/23/strange-fruit/" aria-label="Read more about Strange fruit">Read more</a>