Theresa: When Adoption Fails
S11, Ep. 6: Theresa
Theresa Werba was born in 1962 in New York City to a 17-year-old former
prostitute. She was given up for adoption at three months old. She was placed with a loving foster mother until she was 13 months old, when she was taken away for technical reasons and placed with an older couple with ties to a New Age religious cult.
She endured a bizarre childhood of emotional and physical abuse and left home
at the age of 15. She was disinherited by both adoptive parents upon their deaths.
Theresa found her birth mother in 1984 and has had a positive relationship with
her for over 40 years. Theresa was told a certain individual was her biological father and legally assumed his last name for over 30 years. In 2020, Theresa was able to locate her biological father through DNA testing via two half-sisters. He was a completely different person from the one her mother remembered. Unfortunately, he died in 2019. He never knew that Theresa existed. Theresa legally changed her last name to his in 2020 and is exceedingly happy with her newly harmonized genetic identity.
Theresa is an author, poet, and singer. Her book, When Adoption Fails: Abuse,
Autism, and The Search for My Identity, describes the unusual and peculiar life she had growing up in an abusive adoptive home with undiagnosed autism, and the search for, and discovery of both her biological parents. Find Theresa at www.theresawerba.com and on social media @thesonnetqueen.
Season 11: Adoptee Memoirs - books in order:
Practically Still a Virgin by Monica Hall
You Can't Get Rid of Me by Jesse Scott and Keri Ault
Unspoken by Liz Harvie
Sign up for our mailing list to get updates and the Eventbrite for our September 12th & 13th Washington, D.C. Event!
Thank you to our Patreons! Join at the $10 level and be part of our monthly ADOPTEE CAFE community. The next meeting will be on Saturday, August 9th, @ 1 PM ET.
RESOURCES for Adoptees:
S12F Helping Adoptees
Gregory Luce and Adoptees Rights Law
Fireside Adoptees Facebook Group
Dr. Liz Debetta: Migrating Toward Wholeness Movement
Moses Farrow - Trauma therapist and advocate
National Suicide Prevention Lifeline – 1-800-273-8255 OR Dial or Text 988.
Unraveling Adoption with Beth Syverson
Adoptees Connect with Pamela Karanova
Because She Was Adopted by Kristal Parke
Dear Amy, letters to Amy Coney Barrett. A project by Meika Rouda
