The News Lens
Date: 2018/05/16
By: Maureen Welscher

Maureen Welscher (1966) is a Dutch journalist who writes human interest stories for consumer magazines about health, pregnancy and childlessness. She is a specialist in adoption. and wrote three books about this subject: In conversation with adopted adolescents, Round trip ticket to your roots and Home in two countries. She and her husband adopted two children from Taiwan: Luc (15) and Annemei (18).
This is a story from our feature series “Roots-finding in Taiwan”. The full series can be viewed here.

Interview conducted by Maureen Welscher

When I was 12, I began to suffer because of my adoption. I wondered who I was and why I had been given away. Most poignantly, I contemplated my dual heritage: my mother is Taiwanese, my father is from Nigeria. You can see that in my looks, which confuses people.

When I was 15, I began to search for my biological family. With the help of Cathwel, the children’s home that oversaw my adoption, I was able to contact my biological family through Facebook and find the real story behind my roots.

My father was in Taiwan to learn Chinese. My parents met each other and fell in love. My grandfather and grandmother were against the relationship: My father is not only black but also a lot older than my mother. But my parents did not care about that, and my mother got pregnant.

A month before my mother had to give birth, my father was arrested for drug smuggling and went to prison for 12 years. He thought he could score easy money to support his family. My grandmother then made sure I was ceded for adoption.    [FULL  STORY]