The Lie That Raised Me Part Two

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She logged back in.

After months of denial, after accusing AncestryDNA of switching samples, after trying to shove the results back into the box, Alicia Sharon Denise Williams opened her DNA account again.

The first cousin matches were still there.

This time, she did not look away.

In Part Two of this three-part late discovery adoptee story, Alicia takes us into the moment curiosity turns into confirmation. What starts as online research becomes a drive to Detroit. What feels like suspicion becomes documentation. What felt like a joke her whole life becomes a yellow card inside a government office that changes everything.

She was not who she thought she was.

This episode walks through:

• Reopening AncestryDNA results with new eyes
• Searching Michigan adoption and vital records
• Navigating Wayne County post-adoption services
• Discovering she was born under a different name
• Learning she had been placed in foster care
• Finding out her adoption records were sealed
• Calling her husband from the parking lot in shock

By the time Alicia leaves that building, she does not know how to get home. Not because she lost her car. Because she lost her identity.

She describes going home and staying in bed for three weeks.

Part Two is the emotional collapse. The unraveling. The moment when suspicion becomes documented truth.

And this is still not the end of the story.

In Part Three, Alicia begins the search for her biological parents and siblings. What she finds includes rejection, unexpected acceptance, and a family that had been waiting for her.

About Alicia Sharon Denise Williams

Alicia is a NAAP Board Member, speaker, storyteller, and adoption-truth advocate. As the founder of From Hidden to Healed, she shares her late-discovery adoptee journey, one marked by silence, spiritual awakening, DNA revelation, and the sacred work of untangling identity after truth emerges.

With compassion and faith at the center of her message, Alicia speaks to adoptees, NPEs, and anyone navigating misattributed parentage, reunion, and the lifelong impact of secrecy.

Her message is clear: what was hidden can be healed.

See Alicia at Untangling Our Roots

Alicia will be sharing her story live at Untangling Our Roots, the national conference for adoptees, NPEs, donor-conceived individuals, and families navigating DNA discoveries.

After hearing Part Two, you will understand why experiencing her story in person carries weight.

Learn more at untanglingourroots.org.

This is Part Two of a three-part series.

If you are a late discovery adoptee, questioning your identity, or sitting with unexplained childhood clues, this conversation will resonate.

Part Three drops next.