On Friday I found out my birth name: Christa Joy Hennig.  I’m surprised at how unsurprised I am. It’s so similar to my ‘real’ name — Christa being one shortened form of Christina. I’ve even been called it before.  I know my birth mother’s name (at the time of my birth): Julia Beatrice Hennig. Her birthday is March 6, 1956.    I was 7Ibs11oz and was born at 38 weeks.
How does that affect who I am? It’s still me, I’d still be ‘Chris’ or ‘Chrisa’ even now — though that is a unique name.  I wonder what kind of life I’d have had?
In some ways it’s pretty surreal to think that I have a separate name, one that I don’t think of as mine.  It also plays a role in ‘who’ I am.  In my past, in my origins. Maybe by looking at that I’ll know more about who I am to become.  Will I be “Dr MacKinnon” heh… makes me wonder about “Dr Hennig”… Or maybe “Nurse MacKinnon”. Who knows. But I don’t understand how this impacts me yet, in some ways my initial reaction is strangest to me.  I saw it, shrugged my shoulders and then went out to meet my friends for drinks. I almost wasn’t surprised, which is a bit weird because I was expecting to see “Baby Girl Smith”. Not Christa Joy Hennig. Not a name that’s thoughtful, reflects when I was born, sounds good. And even weirder is how similar it is to my name.
Since then, my scientific mind is piqued. The questions are present, and I can’t help but ask them. So I’ve asked for my adoption file. There is the provisions to received that, so I made copies of my OBR and I’ve sent those so that I can get a complete file.
Now, I just have to figure out how to tell my parents about it.