I have a guilty pleasure. I have one soap opera that watch when I can. No, I don’t have the luxury of sitting down and eating bon bons at the same time. Most of the time I don’t get to watch it, but now I can justify devoting the time to watch.



The show I watch is All My Children. There is an incredible young actress, Leven Rambin, who plays the character Lily Montgomery. She plays an Autistic young woman. Her character loves to solve mysteries, and a new mystery has entered her life, a possible biological sister.

As soon as I heard the following interchange between Lily and another character, Di, I had to record on my TiVo. I wanted to get the quote right. Di is asking Lily why it’s important for her to find out about her possible sister. She’s asking if it’s a mystery or something more important. Here is Lily’s response:

“My real family is very complicated. I have an adoptive father and a step-mother. My adoptive father has an adopted son and a biological daughter. I have 3 step siblings, and I live with my adoptive father’s nephew. I know they all love me like we share the same DNA, but sometimes I look at Kendall, Josh, Bianca and Erica, and I notice that in some ways they look the same. I wonder how it would feel to have a biological connection to someone. Now I might, so it is really exciting and it’s curiosity, but it’s also a mystery. It might be the most important mystery I ever solve.”

Wow. How much more simply can it be put, if you don’t count the family connections? I am glad that they are addressing this real issue in adoption, and a genuine, honest character gets to portray it.

Some searches turned up several other story lines, both past and present by this same soap opera, and others. However, they are very dramatic story lines that do not accurately depict adoption. After all, they are soap operas. There are baby snatchings, illegal adoptions, and adoptions that happen far too quickly.

I hope this show continues to develop this story line in a realistic fashion. There are a lot of aspects of this relationship, and the feelings behind being adopted, that could be played out, without being sensationalized.

I need to go find some bon bons now.