Gale Sipple
A Profile

Gale Sipple, an adoptee, was born in Illinois where records are closed.  She was adopted in Ohio, where records are open with restrictions.  She is a "late discovery adoptee" who grew up not knowing she was adopted. "My mother told me that I was adopted only because she felt she had to, before someone else did. I was never supposed to know."

The mother of three adult children and grandmother of two, Gale did not dwell about the history surrounding her birth family or the circumstances of her adoption until her daughter became seriously ill and the need for family medical history arose.

"My search ran the gamut of adoption searching. I was born in a closed records state, but, adopted in a state where records are accessible to adoptees born in years prior to 1964, which I was. That enabled me to access my adoption file. I am one of the few lucky adoptees who has a copy of their 'Original Birth Certificate'.  Unfortunately, the name given for my birthmother was false, but, she gave me her first and middle name."

With the assistance of a volunteer searcher who unraveled the clues in her original birth certificate she was able to locate her birthmother, two months after she died, as well as several birth siblings, and today, shares a close relationship with her youngest birth sister and oldest birth brother.

Gale is the Kentucky State Coordinator for the Green Ribbon Campaign for Open Records, a national organization that is dedicated to the reform of adoption law and equal access to records for adoption triad members (adoptee, birth parents, adoptive parents).  She also performs free searches for adoptees and birthparents whenever she can. "I try to return the kindness shown me during my own search by assisting others whenever I can."

Gale's background is in finance and business administration. She attended Thomas More College in Edgewood Kentucky. She is currently the operations manager for a successful concrete construction company in Northern Kentucky. Previously she worked in banking and in the petroleum industry.

 


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