I am adopted. There, I said it. My dirty little secret.

If the second you saw the word "adopted" and you thought that I was unloved or unwanted, get that bias out of your head. That was not the case. I was very loved, but at the time my birth parents could not afford to have a child. Of course I was unplanned, but they had the heart to reach out to friends to see if they knew anyone who wanted to adopt. That friend reached out to my parents. I am eternally grateful for that.

Nine months. Nine long months they waited for me. They filled out papers after papers. Paid for a lawyer. All for me. I wasn't even born yet and that is how badly they wanted me.

Growing up was hard. When I told someone that I was adopted, no one understood. They just thought I was some unwanted baby. If I was really unwanted, would I be sitting here writing this article? No. I would not be.

My parents. I do not consider them my "adopted" parents. They are my parents, Mom and Dad. We may not be blood related, but that is what brings us closer together. It creates a bond that not many people can truly understand. We may not look 100 percent alike, but why does that matter? Where I get my blonde hair from? Why does it matter to you? What matters to me is that they gave me a chance to live. Not just some crappy life or amazing life. As a 19-year-old, I can now look back and see what they have done for me. I am eternally grateful.

Why are people so nosy? I once had someone walk up to me and yell that they adopted their daughter around the same time as me. I was not ready for strangers to know. I don't want the whole world to know, not because I am ashamed, but because people get these ideas in their head and then blurt them out to me. I don't want to hear that you think I was unloved or unwanted.

At the age of 17 I wrote my college essay about being adopted. It was when I truly gained full insight of the story. I always asked for bits and pieces, but at 17 I fully asked for the story. So I found out when I was a little girl. Before you say that's a horrible thing to tell a 6-year-old, no it is not. I deserve to know. I deserve to know where I came from. All of my Mom's friends were showing pictures of sonograms and I was curious as to what I looked like in "her tummy." She responded with this: "You were not born from my tummy but born from my heart." This line makes me cry every time because it makes me happy. It makes me feel loved. We have a bond that no one could ever explain.