(Springfield, MO) — A surprising revelation by Oprah Winfrey shines the spotlight on adoption. On Monday, Oprah announced she'd reunited with her half sister who their mother gave up for adoption.

Two local women who share an adoption journey have turned it into a support group. Their stories are different, but they're united in the emotions of those experiences.

They are using their knowledge to help others in the journey of finding their biological parents or children. Hearing Oprah's announcement, Sharon Fieker Cummins and Judy Mills knew they would forever be connected to the icon.

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This book, written by a reunited birth mother, is decidedly religious in orientation, yet tells a compelling story that goes beyond that, and it is worthwhile reading, even for those who normally avoid “Christian” writing. The author was a presenter at the 2004 American Adoption Congress Conference in Kansas City, along with her birth daughter. She was an engaging speaker and is a competent writer.

Her personal story is not unusual in many ways—she became pregnant in what she thought was a committed relationship, which turned out not to be on the father’s part; she hid the pregnancy, birth and relinquishment of her daughter from most of her family and friends, was heavily medicated at the time of the birth and several days thereafter, and she continued for many years to hide the fact that she was a birth mother. For a young woman in those days in a small town in Southwest Missouri, that was an all-too-common story. She did not marry and always carried her grief inside. She talks of feeling like a turtle, hiding her true self under a shell, protecting her secret.