The Unexpected is about my years as an adult adoptee searching for basic, birthright information that was purposefully kept from me. It is a story of mistakes and betrayals. It is story of persistence. Kaky D'Sol, a pseudonym, is an amalgam of all the names I has been given in my life. I was adopted in 1966, after spending the first six weeks of my life in St. Catherine's Center for Children in Albany, New York. It was a closed adoption, which was the law at the time. Access to my birth parents' names or medical history was sealed.

Through writing, I have faced my anger, guilt, and neediness. I thought I was wrong and selfish to search for my roots. I had a loving family. What was my problem? DNA testing and the open adoption laws that most states (not all!) have put in place have restored the right to know the details of our birth, ending this misguided practice. The roadblocks and defeats I faced trying to find out where I began need to be remembered. I've loved reading your story, as will many other people. It is a story that will resonate with anyone who's dealt with loss, fractured families, the search for their identity, the struggle to achieve a life-long goal. In short, everybody.

- Don Brushaber.