First Line Fridays 30: You Carried Me by Melissa Ohden

That time of the week again! Today I am featuring a non-fiction book. I don't tend to read much non-fiction except history and poetry: or the other genre which I like, which is biographies and autobiographies.

I requested this one on Netgalley months ago, and I've only just recently started reading it. In fact, I forgot to send it my my Kindle, and had to download it again. 

You Carried Me by Melissa Ohden 

Melissa Ohden is fourteen when she learns she is the survivor of a botched abortion. In this intimate memoir she details for the first time her search for her biological parents, and her own journey from anger and shame to faith and empowerment.

After a decade-long search Melissa finally locates her birth father and writes to extend forgiveness, only to learn that he has died without answering her burning questions. Melissa becomes a mother herself in the very hospital where she was aborted. This experience transforms her attitude toward women who have had abortions, as does the miscarriage of her only son and the birth of a second daughter with complex health issues. But could anything prepare her for the day she finally meets her birth mother and hears her side of their story? 

This intensely personal story of love and redemption illumines the powerful bond between mother and child that can overcome all odds.

The first two lines read:

A Thick Manila Envelope arrived at my home in Sioux City with the afternoon mail one sunny day in May 2007.  I knew even without looking at the return address that it came from the University of Iowa Hospitals in Iowa City and contained the medical records that would answer some of the questions I had been agonizing over most of my life.

 Now you can comment with your own First Line, and see what the other members of this group are reading by clicking the Meme