Wollongong Online - November 2007 written by John Bown

There's a new range of special cards that have come onto the market which give you the opportunity to better express what you really want to say to somebody.

The brainchild of Megan Whittington and Jeanette Broekman they properly acknowledge relationships particularly affected by loss and gain and offer a uniqueness unlike anything else on the market today. In fact, the cards are as exceptional as the background stories of the women who have created them.  Both Megan and Jeanette believe the cards are powerfully and emotionally evocative as they tackle such strong emotions such as grief, separation and reunification.  Reunite Cards is the story of lost and found.

The idea came about during a conversation between the two women, both adoptees. Both Megan and Jeanette were adopted to loving families at six weeks of age. Both were told as early as they could understand that they had a different "mummy and daddy" and that for one reason or another their birth parents had not been able to keep them. They discovered along the way that growing up with the knowledge of something doesn't automatically mean that you understand it.

Megan and Jeanette were both reunited with their birth parents and under differing circumstances. After 13 years of waiting Megan was reunited with her birth mother and even then she admits to not knowing whether or not she was totally prepared for the occasion. It was only the beginning of the journey, not the end. Jeanette met both of her birth parents on her 28th birthday. Six years later she lost her birth mother to cancer. Jeanette describes it as a lifetime in six years, a relationship rich beyond measure.

It was during this short period that her mother passed on to her knowledge gathered over the years, and eventually this was to become a driving force in Jeanette's desire to introduce a different range of cards, ones that would fully express the need one has to be understood and connected. Both women say Reunite Cards was created with adoption relationships in mind, however, their design allows the reader to project their own story to the cards. The cards are also suitable for those who are separated from significant others, or who may be part of a broken family or foster families.