Have you ever had a fear that consumed you – it invaded your thinking, it drove your actions, it almost ruled who you are? Have you ever had this fear then…...come true? I have. From what I have gleaned from the psychology of adoption, my fear is common among adopted children, though maybe not to the extent that mine ruled me. For as long as I can remember I feared rejection, specifically that my family would throw me away if I didn’t meet their expectations, if I wasn’t enough. I could never share that fear with anyone growing up – I didn’t know how to voice it. But I had been “thrown away” once by the parents who birthed me, so in my mind it meant there was something wrong with me. Whose to say this new family wouldn’t want me either when they discovered how “wrong” I am? I lived with this thought churning in my belly all the time and it drove who I was. This fear was, in reality, a straight jacket that kept me captive and unable to be who I “really” was – I just kept trying to re