"I thought I'd be dead by 21" Great pain produces character. It can just as easily produce fear, rejection, and self-loathing. My early life produced in me a fear that I'd be dead by 21. This personal narrative is my memory of a lifelong search for love, belonging, and a sense of place. Walk with me on my journey through abandonment, panic attacks, fear, rejection, bullying, and unbelief, out into the blinding light of healing love. Adopted touches on the issues nearly every child or adult adoptee must face on the way to maturity, wholeness, and redemption. Along the way it provides valuable insights to adoptive and foster parents who long to see their children whole. And to adult adoptees who wonder why they do what they do and how healing can be the next chapter in their life story.