Send me a message via text or voicemail!🎙️  Episode Summary PART 1: Laura Engel was seventeen when she got pregnant, unmarried, in Mississippi in 1967.  Her family sent her to an unwed mothers' home in New Orleans for five months.  She signed papers she didn't want to sign. She then came back home to her parents house and was expected to just keep going on with her life.   She did that...for fifty years.🎧  In Part 1 of our conversation,  Laura shares what her experience of being pregnant, the months living at the home, and what the next fifty years looked like carrying a child she never forgot.  We end on a cliffhanger: the son she had to give away, Jamie, now named Richard, finally found her!  📖 Laura's Hidden Chapter Moment: The pregnancy, the unwed mother home, and giving up her baby, are all parts people can only imagine.  The hidden chapter is what came after.  Laura walked back into her life and nobody every spoke of it again. Not because she'd healed, but because that was how it was supposed to be.  🔗 Resources & LinksInclude these in your episode show notes so listeners who connect with Laura’s story can find support and community:Laura’s Links• Website: lauralengel.com (includes a Starter Guide for finding a lost loved one)• Book: You’ll Forget This Ever Happened available on Amazon and through She Writes Press• First podcast appearance: Dani Shapiro’s Family Secrets — available on Laura’s websiteAdoption & Birth Parent Resources• CUB (Concerned United Birthparents): cubirthparents.org — support for birth parents• Adoption Knowledge Affiliates: adoptionknowledge.org — education and advocacy across the adoption triad• ISRR (International Soundex Reunion Registry): isrr.org — mutual consent reunion registry• DNA Detectives (Facebook group) — volunteer search angels to help adoptees and birth parents connect• Adoptee Rights Law Center: adopteerightslaw.com — advocacy for open original birth certificatesFor Adoptees Seeking Records• Many states are gradually opening access — check your state’s current law at adopteerightslaw.com/map• Ancestry.com and 23andMe DNA testing remain powerful tools for connectionGrief & Suicide Loss Resources• Alliance of Hope for Suicide Loss Survivors: allianceofhope.org• American Foundation for Suicide Prevention: afsp.org  |  Crisis line: 988Podmatch.com Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.Support the showVisit my website: https://hiddenchapterspodcast.com/  and stay connected! _______________________________🎙️  Want to be a guest on Hidden Chapters: Real Stories that Bring Light to the Hidden Parts of Life? Send me a message on PodMatch, here: https://www.podmatch.com/hostdetailpreview/genevievekruger______________________________Background Music: "In Time" by Folk_acoustic from Pixabay