The questions
A childhood shaped by adoption and the quiet need to understand where his story began.
A story of finding home
Days With My Mother
AN ADOPTION MEMOIR
A lifetime of questions.
A journey toward home.
After nearly thirty years of searching, Jason Taylor-Mann found his birth family—and a new way to know the mother he had longed to meet.
The words that changed everything
“Jason! You found us!”
A brother’s welcome. A new chapter in a lifelong search.
About the book
Some answers
change everything.
Jason always knew he was adopted. What he didn’t know was his mother’s name, the faces of his siblings, or the story of his own beginning.
For nearly thirty years, he searched through agencies, records, and unanswered questions. Then, in October 2020, his original birth certificate arrived. For the first time, he learned his mother’s name.
Within days, Jason found his siblings. But the reunion also brought the news that his mother had died years earlier. Through her children’s stories, he began to know the woman he had spent so long hoping to meet.
Days With My Mother follows that search and the life that came after it: building relationships, holding grief alongside joy, and making room for both the family who raised him and the family he found.
IdentityReunionBelonging
The search
Decades of persistence, small discoveries, and a birth certificate that opened the way home.
The belonging
Seven siblings, a mother’s memory, and the work of becoming a family after years apart.
Inside the memoir
Begin with
his words.
A glimpse into the questions that started a lifelong search.
Read the manuscript previewFROM “I ALWAYS KNEW”
“I don’t remember a day when I didn’t know I was adopted.
It wasn’t a family secret hidden from me until I became an adult. My parents, Sam and Shirley Taylor, told me when I was very young. I appreciate that they never lied to me about it.
Knowing it, however, and understanding it were two completely different things.”
Selected passages from the working manuscript.
Final text may change.
Meet Jason
Upcoming events.
For readers & book clubs
A story to read.
A conversation
to carry forward.
For adoptees, families connected by adoption, and anyone who has asked where they belong.
Download discussion questions01What does it mean to know your own story?
Jason knew he was adopted, but many details of his beginning were unknown. How does access to family history shape a person’s sense of self? Which unanswered questions stay with you?
02Can joy and grief share the same moment?
Finding his siblings also meant learning that his mother had died. How does the memoir make room for the joy of reunion and the grief of a meeting that could never happen?
03How does a family grow after reunion?
A reunion is a beginning. What turns a biological connection into a lived relationship? Consider the everyday conversations, shared memories, and time together that build belonging.
04What can a name hold?
Jason’s name connects the Taylors and the Manns. What does that choice express about identity, gratitude, and honoring more than one family?
Adoption education
Information for
your own journey.
Understanding your history and finding support can take many forms. Explore practical resources for adoptees and the people who care about them.
Your birth records
New York State’s adoptee-rights law took effect in 2020. Learn who can request an original birth certificate and how the NYC application process works.
Explore records accessFinding a therapist
Find professionals with adoption training, prepare questions for an introductory call, and explore insurance and payment options.
Find support resourcesAdoption & mental health
Read what research says about depression, anxiety, and service use, with context on grief, identity, early experiences, and individual differences.
Understand the researchThe next chapter
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Publication updates
Release details and purchase links will be added here when available.