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GIVE ME A BREAK:THIS WEEK, I'm handing the column over to the readers. Some of you - birth mothers who were happy with their decision and adoptive parents grateful for the gift of an adopted family - want me to point out that there were a few words left out of my column about adoption last week, such as relief, forgiveness, reunion and joy. Others have e-mailed me with stories that make last week's harrowing column seem pale.

I wrote about my friend, who gave up a baby for adoption 30 years ago. She subsequently married, having told her husband about her first child, and gave birth to several more children. To this day, none of the children know their mother's secret. She's afraid to tell them.