Terry never felt like he fit in, Nick identified himself as an outsider, and, at fifteen, Meg ran away from home. Terry's, Nick's, and Meg's stories are part of the twenty-nine profiles in Embracing the Adoption Effect. Some remarkable people shared their riveting, thought-provoking experiences in personal interviews for this project. This intimate collection, featuring accounts of adoption occurring from the 1940s to the 1990s, highlights the adoption emotional enigma that is a part of America's story. Whether adoptive parents, birth parents, or adult adoptees, these remarkable individuals, now aged twenty-five to eighty, have lived with secrets, misunderstandings, and misconceptions. Yet all interviewees believe that because they are a part of the adoption world, they have developed into deeper, more compassionate and tolerant people. They feel they are far better individuals today because of their adoption experience. They all survived in a system that did not recognize adoption's long-term implicit complications. These interviewees hope that by sharing their stories in Embracing the Adoption Effect, they can explain their thoughts, provide insight into their behavior, and inspire hope, healing, and redemption for those still on adoption's life long road.