One Step, One Story Leads to Another

By Julie Ryan McGue

At age 48, I was sent for a breast biopsy. That singular event has been life-altering. First, it led to a five-year search for my birth parents, and then to a late-in-life writing career, one comprised of publishing nonfiction books, essays, blogs, and a regular column. Such is life. One step leads to another. And as I have also come to find out: one story leads to another. 

After the biopsy, I phoned my twin sister with whom I was raised, asking for her help in searching for our birth parents to gain crucial medical history. Since our adoptive parents still possessed our adoption papers, our journey began with them. Requesting the documents proved to be gnarly business. Dad was supportive but Mom was displeased. Their reactions set the tone for the ensuing search: Nothing about the process was going to be simple, predictable, or easy. 

My twin sister and I remained aligned. For five years, we encountered numerous adoption gatekeepers tasked with preventing access to our closed records. Crossing the finish line meant hiring an adoption search firm, a PI, a confidential intermediary, and a genealogist. The journey also involved our adoption agency, several social workers, and two very special circuit court judges. It exposed secrets, lies, and family members who were literally right next door. 

Whenever family and friends asked for a search update, I heard the same comment. “This is incredible. You should write a book.”

I’d smile in response. Yet inwardly I’d puzzle. “How would I do that? I’m a stay-at-home mom. My career was in retail store operations, not creative writing.”

I have always been a meticulous journaler, and so it was natural for me to write honestly about each step of our rigorous adoption search. In my notebooks, I revealed my innermost feelings about my mother’s troubling attitude, my yearning for answers, my fears about what I’d uncover, and the dream of meeting birth relatives. The idea of writing my search saga for publication festered, nagging like homework on a Sunday night. 

Armed with my journals, I enrolled in writing courses at the University of Chicago Graham School and emerged with a bona fide “vomit draft.” Then, I enrolled in the course, “Write Your Memoir in Six Months” ––not once but twice–– with She Writes Press publisher Brooke Warner, and Linda Joy Myers, President of NAMW (National Association of Memoir Writers). There, I transformed my “vomit draft” into chapters rich with scenic detail and dialogue. At the end of the second six-month session, Brooke Warner approached me, offering a publishing contract. One step had, again, led to the next. 

In May 2021, nearly ten years after the breast biopsy, my debut memoir Twice a Daughter: A Search for Identity, Family, and Belonging released. It has appealed to adoptees, adoptive parents, birth parents, their friends and family, and those outside the adoption circle. Whenever I discussed Twice a Daughter with fellow members of the adoption triad, podcast hosts, or booklovers, I received the same query: What was it like to grow up as a twin and an adoptee? 

An idea hatched. Why not write a prequel and satisfy the curiosity of my audience? I approached Brooke Warner and received a publishing contract for a second memoir.

My second memoir, Twice the Family: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and Sisterhood, releases on February 4, 2025. It is a coming-of-age story set in Chicago’s western suburbs between the 1960s and ‘80s. When our parents adopted my twin sister and me in 1959, we provided them with an instant family. But as our parents continued adding children to the family, some painful and tragic experiences tested family values, parental relationships, and sibling bonds. Throughout those events, my sister and I strived for identity, individuality, and belonging while maintaining our unique sisterly bond. Those formative years, and the strong set of family values our parents instilled in us, influenced the woman and mother I have become. Each step of my life built upon the one that preceded it.

Several years ago, my husband passed away from cancer. As I enter this next stage of life, full of challenges and personal growth, I realize I am still becoming. Like my writing career, I am a work in progress. Life has provided me with a wealth of material, and within me lies a rich cache of stories waiting their turn to make it to the printed page. 

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Julie Ryan McGue is an American writer, a domestic adoptee, and an identical twin. She writes about finding out who you are, where you belong and making sense of it. You can follow her work at www.juliemcgueauthor.com.

Twice the Family: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and Sisterhood

Growing up as an adoptee and identical twin, Julie McGue will take you on her journey for identity and individuality, searching for answers through tragedy and adversity.

In this coming-of-age memoir, set in Chicago’s western suburbs between the 1960s and ’80s, adopted twins Julie and Jenny provide their parents with an instant family. Their sisterly bond holds tight as the two strive for identity, individuality, and belonging. But as Julie’s parents continue adding children to the family, some painful and tragic experiences test family values, parental relationships, and sibling bonds.

Faced with these hurdles, Julie questions everything—who she is, how she fits in, her adoption circumstances, her faith, and her idea of family. But the life her parents have constructed is not one she wants for herself—and as she matures, she recognizes how the experiences that formed her have provided her a road map for the person and mother she wants to be.

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Tags: featured, women writers

Category: Contemporary Women Writers