Hi, my name is Bennett, and in this blog, you’ll read five questions I asked Betsie Norris about 39 years of Adoption Network Cleveland (ANC) and maybe learn something new about Betsie, too!
First, let me introduce myself.
I’m a current volunteer at ANC, and I joined the team in June 2026. I live in Chicago but was raised in Cleveland; I came to Chicago to attend DePaul University, where I spent six years earning my Bachelor’s and Master’s in Public Relations and Advertising. There, I learned from some of the most respected professionals in my field and the importance of creating meaningful campaigns and using community outreach to connect people to a cause.
I wanted to volunteer for ANC because, as an adoptee myself, I know how important it is to support others who were adopted. Every adoption story is different, but adoptees often share similarities in how they feel and choose to express themselves. As a young professional, I saw this as a chance to use my skills for an organization that shares similar values of mine.
As ANC starts its 39th year and Betsie speaks for the Monday Evening Speaker Series on September 21st, I saw a great opportunity to learn more about Betsie and her story of founding ANC. Thank you, Betsie, for answering my questions and allowing me to tell a little bit of your story, and for those who read this blog, I hope you learn something new from my interview with Betsie.
“It felt like I left my own body.”
My first question to Betsie was about the moment it all really started for her, and it wasn’t the founding of ANC. It was years earlier, in 1986, with a phone call she’d been building up the courage to make for a long time.
Betsie had rehearsed what she’d say to her birth mother a hundred times over. She knew the words she wanted to use, the order she wanted to say them in, probably even the tone of voice she was going for. But when the moment actually came, she told me it didn’t go the way she’d pictured at all:
“I heard myself say the words I had practiced so carefully, yet it was as if I were watching someone else make the call.”
Then her birth mother told her something that changed the shape of the conversation: she’d been praying for that call for 26 years.
What Betsie didn’t know yet was how much bigger the story was about to get. Eighteen months after Betsie was born, her birth parents had married each other and gone on to have three more sons – including a set of identical twins. So this wasn’t just a reunion between Betsie and her birth mother. It was the discovery of an entire family she never knew existed.
Betsie describes the reunion as never being one single moment. It was “a series of firsts” — meeting each brother separately, each reacting in his own way, and each new relationship bringing its own mix of joy, grief, and every other feeling that may come with finding out who you’re actually connected to.
Discovering more information about your birth family can be very emotional for any adoptee; it takes time to process, time to heal, and courage. ANC offers support for adoptees who want to talk about their feelings regarding their personal adoption story. You can find resources like support groups on our website; we welcome all.
Two people, a borrowed conference room, and zero nonprofit experience
My second question moved forward two years, to 1988—the actual founding of ANC. I was curious whether Betsie had any idea back then that what she was starting would still be around 39 years later.
Shorter answer: no. Betsie was a registered nurse working in child mental health at the time. She had no background in running a nonprofit, no formal plan, none of that. What she did have was a short stack of books that had gotten her through her own search, and a gut feeling that other people needed what she’d found – a community that understood this experience.
She wrote to a national organization to ask about starting a Cleveland chapter. Nobody wrote back, so instead of giving up, she started one herself.
Betsie connected with a birth mother, Kate Oatis, and they put together a regional conference practically from scratch. Betsie's goal was to use this conference as a launchpad to start an organization. Looking back, Betsie told me, “I honestly don’t know what we were thinking!” Somehow, it worked—and the conference generated enough momentum that Adoption Network launched its first support group right after.
When I asked Betsie why she thought the organization had lasted this long, her answer wasn’t anything glamorous; it was almost a matter of fact: “Meaningful change takes patience, persistence, and many people working together over many years.”
Her response made me think about all the great causes and movements I have read about or witnessed. While there is usually a face of the movement or organization, it is more than just one person. It takes a group of people coming together year after year to get somewhere. As you continue reading, you will see how much resilience it took for Betsie never to give up.
A 25-year fight over a piece of paper
My third question took things in a different direction—away from personal reunion and into something more systemic. Early in her search, Betsie learned that Ohio’s original birth certificates were available to adoptees adopted before January 1, 1964. She happened to land just on the right side of that line, but everyone born a few years after her did not—including thousands of people who, like her, just wanted to know the truth about where they came from.
What followed was decades of legislative effort. Seven sequential bills moved through the late ‘80s and early 2000s. All stalled because of opposition in the Ohio legislature that Betsie describes as being built on “conjecture and untruths designed to instill fear.” Instead of quitting, Betsie became a leader of the statewide coalition pushing the issue forward.
In 2013, ANC made a breakthrough by creating a campaign called Restore Ohio Adoptee Rights, also known as ROAR. ANC enrolled a dream team of legislative sponsors, got bills introduced in the Ohio House and Senate, and, after a whirlwind year, passed the bill. The law took full effect in March 2015, making Original Birth Certificates accessible to 400,000 Ohio adoptees born between 1964 and 1996 (ANC had already helped change the post-1996 law years earlier).
Any adoptee can appreciate the time and effort it took to help other adoptees gain access to documents they deserve. It’s one thing to fight for something that affects you directly. It’s another to keep fighting for 25 years on behalf of hundreds of thousands of people you’ll likely never meet.
I asked what kept her going for 25 years. Her answer: “Once I understood the inequality, I couldn't unsee it.”
I think this is a strong reminder to keep fighting for what is right, no matter how long it might take. There were so many times when Betsie could have called it quits, but she kept fighting until the mission was complete.
The brothers who didn’t know each other existed
Not every question was about legislation or reunion. I also wanted to know what story from ANC’s work has stayed with Betsie all these years later.
She told me about two teenagers in foster care in 2004, both in Cuyahoga County’s permanent custody, who were aging out of the system. Somewhere along the way, while working with youth in foster care, ANC discovered something nobody had put together: the two boys were brothers. They’d been separated when they were young, and the county had never kept them in contact.
Betsie said this story has stuck with her because it’s a reminder that permanency isn’t just about finding a youth a placement — it’s about protecting the relationships that give someone a real sense of identity and belonging. That’s why protecting sibling connections in foster care remains one of ANC’s legislative priorities today.
What she’s saving for her September 21 Monday Evening Speaker Series presentation
My last question wasn’t about a specific event or story. Instead, I asked Betsie what she hoped people would take away from hearing her tell this story in person, after 39 years of mostly trying to stay out of the spotlight, as she describes herself as generally introverted.
She has told her own origin story many times over the years. Still, she said there’s something different about telling it now, decades in and with “fresh ears,” talking through the early days, the people who helped build the organization, all the different challenges nobody usually hears about, and a few stories that don’t make it into the usual telling.
Some stories are better heard firsthand. So whenever you’re reading this, before the 21st or after, if you didn’t attend our event on the 21st, you can find Betsie’s full Monday Evening Speaker Series talk on ANC’s YouTube channel; we post every session there.
Learn more by visiting the Monday Evening Speaker Series page of the ANC website:
Watch an encore presentation of Betsie's September 21, 2026 Monday Evening Speaker Series presentation here:
