Yeah, girl, yeah!
Or should I say, Yeah, woman, yeah! Haha!
I've been sitting on this nugget for the last couple of months and now it's finally OUT! Super excited!
I have been stoked to be able to share my story on this blogging platform and now, I get to share it in hardcopy - well, a small portion of it anyway.
My Mama and I had a lot of fun doing this photoshoot! Getting all dolled up in between being interviewed. Can anyone say, Rock stars!?! Haha! Thank you NZ Woman's Weekly for helping me check another thing off my Bucket List... [winky wink]
Here's the deets:
"Born in Hong Kong and raised in Gisborne, Kiwi Mum Sama has doubled the love in her life.
Some would say her family life has been challenging, but Sama believes she's extremely lucky. That's because she has two wonderful mothers. First, there's Annette, the Kiwi woman who travelled to Hong Kong to adopt Sama from an orphanage when she was only two years old. And then there's [her birth mother] who was forced to give up her daughter as a teenager.
Aucklander Sama says she shed many tears during her search for her birth mum, particularly when it resulted in an emotional reunion in Hong Kong this past Valentine's Day. And Sama was especially grateful that her Kiwi mother was able to be there with her.
"Annette is my mother in the sense that she was the person who came and got me when I was a baby," begins Sama. "She was the one who raised me, comforted me, made me laugh and became my best friend. We started this journey together and it was symbolic that she was with me when I met my birth mother. I needed her there."
Annette and her e-husband John already had two children of their own... when they adopted [a son] in New Zealand, and then Sama from Hong Kong. They later went on to have [another son] completing their family of seven.
As young parents, Annette and John belonged to a Christian organisation called 'Asian Outreach'. who asked them if they were interested in adopting a baby. It took them a year of red tape before they could adopt Sama, whose name means "flower of God".
"I fell in love with Sama as soon as I saw her," recalls Annette.
Sama doesn't remember what her life was like in the orphanage or arriving in New Zealand, but to Annette, the memories are still very clear. Obviously, there was a language barrier but, Annette says, "Sama had three siblings to help encourage her to talk and I spent every day teaching her. She picked up the language very quickly."
But there were many other challenges. Growing up in Gisborne, Sama looked very different from her family. People would often approach Annette and ask if Sama was her exchange student.
"The teenage years were really hard on her," Annette says. "I would just hold her and talk to her, and remind her that she was very important to us."
The decision to search for her birth mother came about after Sama started her own family - a baby daughter Ever, with her husband.
"My brothers and sister had kids, and the hardest thing was seeing them discuss who in the family their children looked like, I couldn't participate in those discussions with my daughter. That's when I knew I wanted her to grow up with some knowledge of her blood line and culture."
With the help of Annette, Sama obtained the orphanage papers and learned her birth mum was only 16 when she fell pregnant. They then contacted the adoption unit of the Hong Kong government, who helped Sama locate her birth family.
Last July, Sama made contact with her birth mum. [She] was so overjoyed to hear from Sama that she offered to pay for her, [her husband] and their daughter to fly to Hong Kong and meet her.
Sama didn't want Annette to miss the reunion and fund-raised for her to share the experience.
In Hong Kong, Sama met not only [her birth mother], but her grandmother and two half-siblings.
"As an adoptee who has found her birth mother, you never know what you're going to get. My birth mother has lived a hard life, but remained honest and tender. She was full of love for me," says Sama.
Annette says it was wonderful to see her daughter finally meet her biological family. "Since the meeting, she's changed. She's found her roots and she is whole."
Sama is still in contact with her birth family and hopes they will visit New Zealand to see the wonderful life that she has built for herself.
"The final piece of the puzzle has slotted into place," Sama says. "I now have a history and a culture I am getting to know."
Now that's done and dusted, I am awaiting the next exciting chapter of this journey. My B-Ma and some of the whanau want to come to New Zealand but there are a few obstacles at present. Hopefully it will happen this year. Fingers crossed! I will keep y'all posted so watch this space...
