>Date:         Sat, 27 Jul 1996 
>
>From:         Snowmann@AOL.COM
>To:            jkelly@wimsey.com
>
Subject:      Media: Woman gets original birth certificate
From the Burlington (Vermont) Free Press, July 27, 1996, by Anne Geggis
Adoptee completes link to past
Law opens access to birth certificate
At the age of 33, Kelli Ross of Randolph finally received Friday what most 
people get soon after they are born: an authentic birth certificate.
Ross beamed as she stood in the lobby of the state Health Department Building 
in Burlington. She had just become the first adoptee in Vermont to obtain a 
copy of her real birth certificate--the result of re-written adoption laws. 
For her, the piece of paper is one of the last puzzle pieces to fill in the 
story of her past.
"I'm legitimate--here's proof," Ross said, holding up the photocopy. "I'm not 
a second-class citizen. I have what everyone else has."
Before Friday, Ross' birth certificate had listed her adoptive parents under 
the line calling for "mother" and "father" and named her as "Kelli Ann Ross." 
Such a document is technically called an amended birth certificate. The real 
one, though, showed her birth mother's name and that she had been named 
"Diana Lynne Beauchamp" at birth.
The laws that took effect July 1 marked the first major overhaul of Vermont's 
adoption laws since 1947. Lawakers intended to make it easier for adoptees 
and birth parents to find one another--if all parties agree--while also 
protecting the identity of those who don't want to be found.
In addition, the law allows adoptees to see their original birth 
certificate--but only if the birth mother consents. Before, seeing the 
original birth certificate had been impossible even if both sides agreed.
"This is a great ending to working on the adoption reform bill," says 
Ross,who had testified before the Legislature while lawmakers considered the 
changes.
Marge Garfield, who runs the Adoption Search and Support Network, said she 
was happy to see the fruits of three years' labor. "This is a membership card 
in the human race," she said.
Ross was not always so anxious to find out about her past, though. While in 
college, she wrote a paper for an English class contending that adoption 
records should remain closed. "In it I argued that you have to respect the 
process and leave it closed," she said. "It was a good paper. I got a 'B' on 
it."
But then she hit 30 and found a lump in her breast. It turned out to be 
benign, but medical problems persisited. "I wanted to find out about my 
medical history," Ross said. "But then it turned personal. I started to 
wonder, 'Who do I look like?'"
Ross crossed one barrier to finding out the truth when her adoptive parents 
supported her search. They gave her all the records they had about her birth 
at the Elizabeth Lund Home in Burlington, a home for unwed mothers. But then 
she had to face her own fears. "You have to set yourself up for the worst so 
you can get the good that comes out of it--no matter what you find,you get 
the knowledge of who you are and where you came from," she said of looking 
for her birth parents. "If you're not prepared you can be completely 
devastated."
Many long distance phone calls and record-scouring sessions later, Ross was 
reunited with her birht mother in Bound Brook, NJ, on Memorial Day weekend.
"At first, I froze--I couldn't move from the car," she said, recalling the 
reunion. "It was like looking in the mirror. She had the same funny, bad 
eyes, the same bad teeth and the same right ear that sticks out a little more 
than the left ear."
She has her father's name, but said she wants to take a break from searching 
before locating him.
Later that weekend, mother and daughter reflected on the change in her name. 
"My birth mother said that I don't look like a 'Diana,'"Ross said. "She said 
'Kelli' really fits."
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