Guest Post: Ane Mulligan

I'm delighted to welcome Author Ane Mulligan back to Chirp 'N Chatter! I know you'll enjoy Ane's wonderful post, and...she'll be giving away an electronic copy of WHEN THE BOUGH BREAKS! Be sure to leave a comment below to be entered in the drawing.

Everyone Wants to Belong

Every time I passed a mirror, I would look to see if I could catch a glimpse of someone I looked like. You see I was adopted as an infant. Now before y'all get the wrong idea, I had a wonderful childhood in a loving family.

I always knew I was adopted. I felt special and loved. I never lacked for love, but when I started school, I met my first set of twins. They were in my class and the two people who looked exactly alike fascinated me. That's when I realized I didn't look like anyone.

My lineage is Irish and a pinch of French. My adoptive dad was Scandinavian and mama was German and Scottish. I began to watch sisters who looked alike, a daughter who looked like her mother. And I felt like I didn't belong anywhere. That is when it started; my obsession with looking at people to see if I could find someone I looked like.

When I turned fifty, I would look in the mirror and wonder if I looked like my mother or father. Was I a combination of both or a replica of one? I didn't have my biological mother or a sister to ask about the changes that happen to women. I would stare into the mirror and ask whose nose is this? Whose ears? Whose hands?

Then in 2009, I found my birth sisters. The whole story is on my website under Adoption. I finally had my answer. I was a replica of my mother – nearly an exact one. I have sisters who look just like me. I have the Mullvain hands. I watched my sisters' mannerisms and realized they were the same as mine!

When my youngest sister, Cindy, and her husband came to see us, I don't remember what I did, but her husband, John, turned to her and said, "She is so your sister." Sweeter words were never heard. And for once, I felt like I truly belonged.

I knew if I felt like this, other people—other women—did too. Being a novelist, the natural progression was to write a story about an adoptee who looks nothing like her loving family. I decided to give her a profession that might help her find her birth mother, and it was one with which I had experience. I made her a lobbyist for a pro family group.

My heroine had to learn that God had placed her where He wanted her. There is a Scripture I love, Psalm 27: 10 "Even if my father and mother abandon me, the Lord will hold me close." NLT

For me, the story is a tribute to my adoptive parents. And it also is a tribute to how God is trustworthy with our dreams. I had to give Him my dream of finding my birth sisters, and He was faithful with it. In His time, he brought me great joy by fulfilling my dream. I didn't just get a sister, but five of them.

About WHEN THE BOUGH BREAKS:

Her dream job has a Catch 22—and time's running out

Rookie lobbyist Sienna O'Shea is determined to make a name for herself in New York's capitol city and use that influence to gain easier access to her birth records. For years she's searched for her birth mother, but when she's handed her first assignment—to lobby support for the permanent sealing of all adoption records—her worlds collide. Swept up into the intrigue of backroom politics, falling in love was not on Sienna's agenda, but the candidate for Lt. Governor runs a formidable campaign to make her his first lady. When an investigative reporter discovers foreign money infiltrating political campaigns, the trail leads to Sienna's inner circle.

Ane Mulligan writes Southern-fried fiction served with a tall, sweet iced tea. She firmly believes coffee and chocolate are two of the four major food groups. An award-winning and multi-published novelist and playwright, Ane is the creative director and CEO of Players Guild@Sugar Hill, a community theater and a contributor to Novel Rocket. She resides in Sugar Hill, GA, with her artist husband and a dog of Biblical proportion. You can find Ane on her website at www.anemulligan.com or her Amazon author page.