All have right to see birth certificates

Neither ice nor snow nor rain - sleet or potholes or freezing temperatures deterred adoptee Mary Lynn Fuller of Urbana from traveling to Springfield to the Division of Vital Records.

Adoptee Mary Lynn Fuller knows something that most average citizens do not know.

Adopted adults in Illinois cannot get their original birth certificates ever. Original Birth Certificates are permanently sealed at the time of adoption. Mary carried a Special Delivery package for Santa Claus. It was filled to the brim with letters from adopted men and women all over the state. They all contained the same wish: adopted men and women want to be able to access their original birth certificate.

Illinois Open Organization, www.ilopen.org, and Adoption Reform Illinois co-sponsored this project. Mary Lynn Fuller is co-founder of Illinois Open Organization and Triona Guidry of Cary is Midwest Coordinator for Green Ribbon Campaign for Open Records and she also heads Adoption Reform Illinois.

All we want for 2009 is our Original Birth Certificate.

Anita Walker Field

Skokie