I was drawn to this book because of my brother-in-law's adoption story. I learned a lot about how the US has handled teenaged pregnancies. It's sad that the system deceived birth mothers and adoptive families, and then did everything possible to prevent them from finding each other.

My mother-in-law was separated from her husband and was doing her best to raise her three children on her own. She was barely making it, and even had to rely on homeless shelters from time to time. A brief reunion with her husband led to a fourth pregnancy that she could not afford. She asked her doctor to help find a family who could adopt her baby. She wanted the baby to have three things. 1. Money 2. A stay-at-home mother 3. Siblings. The doctor found a family that fit her requests, but he wanted to ensure it was ok that the family was Jewish. My mother-in-law is a strict Catholic. She verified that her three requests had been met, and then gave her ok. My husband was 9 years old when she came home from the hospital without the baby. He remembers putting his hand on her shoulder as she sat on the front steps crying. He asked if it was a boy or girl. It was a boy. Then he said, "Don't worry, Mom. Some day I'm going to find my brother."

42 years later, my husband received an email from a man who had taken an Ancestry spit test and found a distant relative. This man had a disorder called thalassemia anemia that runs in my husband's family. And there was a shocking photo attached. He looked more like my husband than anyone we had ever seen. My husband finally found his brother, who never dreamed that he had three full siblings.

The thing that most surprised me is how many characteristics this youngest brother has in common with the rest of his birth family. It has made me think nature beats out nurture, which was a point made in the book.