Lynne Banks

In 1977 Lynne came very close to becoming a birth mom, but because she was not allowed to choose the future family for her child, she decided to parent. In 1992 Katie was born to a young mom who chose to move forward with an open adoption with Lynne and her husband. Because of Lynne’s earlier experience and unfortunate loss of her baby to SIDS, she understood the heart of a mom and the importance of always knowing where her baby was and how she was doing, of being able to hold her, love her and watch her grow.

After about 5 years, Lynne and her husband decided again to add to their family and began internet research which led them to connecting with others who were doing the same. She learned quickly that it was an unsafe environment, as they were scammed by a young woman who was never pregnant. Once she healed from that experience, she vowed to help others recognize when they may be in danger of a scam. Henceforth was the birth of adoptionscams.net. In order to obtain solid evidence that an individual was not being truthful, Lynne was required to find factual information which required learning to research. Through this learning process, she was able educating herself and many others. Because of this experience she met a gal, Melissa, who was looking to adopt, was also an adoptee, and later wanted search for her original story, known as her “chapter one.”

Melissa asked Lynne to help her through this journey on which she learned what it meant to be adopted, what an adoptee feels, how adoptions were once handled, and how to research one’s family history. Melissa then introduced Lynne to the American Adoption Congress (AAC) and encouraged her to attend a conference in Las Vegas. That is where she attended workshops and learned more about raising children through adoption. It wasn’t long before she became the South Dakota State Representative for AAC. As the SD state rep, Lynne found that very little education was taking place in adoption. There was a major lack of assistance for adopted persons finding their chapter ones and laws were antiquated and needed changing. 

In the past few years Lynne has helped adoptees and birthparents find one another, began a networking group for the adoption triad (the three-sided relationship that exists in an adoption between birth parents, adoptive parents and the adoptees) and has been active in legislation so that all adult adoptees can obtain a non-certified copy of their original birth certificates without a court order.

Over the years Lynne started researching and learning more about adoption. How it affected a birthparent, and an adopted person. She and her husband have also added two wonderful daughters, Katie and Annie, to their family through adoption and both girls maintain ongoing relationships with their birth families.

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