As adopted, the photo album from childhood often has empty pockets, and the first memories are marred by gaps. Jeanette Søm Munk knows all about it. She was left as an infant and later adopted to Denmark. Now she helps people in the same situation
When Jeanette Søm Munk was a child, she did not like being alone. In fact, she was so afraid to spend the afternoons after school with herself that she always had playmates with her home.
She also could not bear to go on holiday outside the country's borders. For all that was new and uncertain terrain frightened her. And with good reason. Jeanette was left on a stepping stone in Iran's capital, Tehran, when she was just a few weeks old.
Or at least that's what she's been told. Jeanette does not know when she was born. That she can celebrate her birthday on November 11 every year is thanks to a doctor who set an approximate date of birth when she arrived at an orphanage in the city of millions.
- I have always sought security, both as a child and as an elderly person. And even though my parents have been amazing, I have always felt a little different. When you can not say exactly when and where you come from, you feel hollow inside. That's why I have always made sure to surround myself with many people - because think now if I were to be alone again. If there were many around me, there would always be at least one left with me, says Jeanette, who was adopted by Danish parents when she was eight months old.