"Our past is not our potential."-Unknown

Hi! My name is Gloria. It was given to me by my adoptive parents, Anya and Zindel Oxenhorn (AKA Hannah and Sidney), may they rest in peace.

Before that I had a "what I would have called you name." My birth mother would have named me Elizabeth after Elizabeth Taylor whom she found appealing.

People say I'm a woman of many hats and that's probably true. I'm daughter, wife, mother of three, cancer survivor, reunited adoptee, baby boomer, oldest of ten birth siblings combined, raised as an only child, data entry clerk, avid reader and writer.

As an adoptee in search culminating in a successful reunion with both my maternal and paternal birth families, I took an interest in genealogy. I discovered many interesting facts pertaining to my paternal ancestral roots. One fact, being that Colonel William Prescott of Bunker Hill Fame was my first cousin seven times removed.

I chose not to include details of my search here as they'll be incorporated into my book. If I reveal everything now, you wouldn't have to buy my book, right?

Why did I choose Family Matters as my site's title?

I chose it because adoption triad members deal with many family related issues. The word matters is used in that sense.

The ambiguous meaning that family is important ties in when it comes to genetic based health issues which an adoptee usually doesn't know about.

Why did I choose this background?

I chose it because I felt it ties in with the fact that many of my paternal ancestors were founding settlers of the original thirteen colonies. Many of them fought in the Civil and Revolutionary Wars and helped shape our country. The Statue of Liberty on the right serves to connect me to New York, the place I was born and where this monument is located.

What is the goal of this Website?

My goal for my site is to build a platform in anticipation of my autobiographical account of my life story as an adoptee, my search experiences, reunion, second adoption and tie in the importance of knowing certain aspects of your blood ties, even if the adoptee isn't interested in taking the search to the reunion stage.

I would also like this site to focus on my writing about serious topics of life in an easy to understand and engaging manner.

"In every conceivable manner, the family is link to our past, bridge to our future."-Alex Haley