{"id":224,"date":"2026-02-24T23:42:32","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T23:42:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/adopteeauthors.com\/?page_id=224"},"modified":"2026-03-07T23:16:18","modified_gmt":"2026-03-07T23:16:18","slug":"julie-ryan-mcgue","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/adopteeauthors.com\/?page_id=224","title":{"rendered":"Julie Ryan McGue"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Twice A Daughter<\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Julie is adopted. She is also a twin. Because their adoption was closed, she and her sister lack both a health history and their adoption papers\u2014which becomes an issue for Julie when, at forty-eight years old, she finds herself facing several serious health issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To launch the probe into her closed adoption, Julie first needs the support of her sister. The twins talk things over, and make a pact: Julie will approach their adoptive parents for the adoption paperwork and investigate search options, and the sisters will split the costs involved in locating their birth relatives. But their adoptive parents aren\u2019t happy that their daughters want to locate their birth parents\u2014and that is only the first of many obstacles Julie will come up against as she digs into her background.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Julie\u2019s search for her birth relatives spans eight years and involves a search agency, a PI, a confidential intermediary, a judge, an adoption agency, a social worker, and a genealogist. By journey\u2019s end, what began as a simple desire for a family medical history has evolved into a complicated quest\u2014one that unearths secrets, lies, and family members that are literally right next door.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Twice the Family<\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this coming-of-age memoir, set in Chicago\u2019s western suburbs between the 1960s and \u201980s, adopted twins Julie and Jenny provide their parents with an instant family. Their sisterly bond holds tight as the two strive for identity, individuality, and belonging. But as Julie\u2019s parents continue adding children to the family, some painful and tragic experiences test family values, parental relationships, and sibling bonds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Faced with these hurdles, Julie questions everything\u2014who she is, how she fits in, her adoption circumstances, her faith, and her idea of family. But the life her parents have constructed is not one she wants for herself\u2014and as she matures, she recognizes how the experiences that formed her have provided her a road map for the person and mother she wants to be.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Belonging Matters<\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Belonging Matters<\/em> supports the adoption community while creating a conversation with those not directly touched by adoption. The collection explores the pursuit of identity and the boundaries of family and kinship. It challenges the reader to embrace all of who we come to be, and to discern with whom and where we belong. Because belonging defines the human experience, and it is what nourishes our spirit, fuels us with purpose, and compels us to soar beyond the limitations of our lived experience.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Julie Ryan McGue<\/strong> is an American writer, a domestic adoptee, and an identical twin. Her first memoir, Twice a Daughter: A Search for Identity, Family, and Belonging <\/em>(She Writes Press), <\/em>released in May 2021, won multiple awards. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her work has appeared in Writers Digest,<\/em> Story Circle Network Journal, Brevity Nonfiction Blog, Imprint News, Adoption.com, Adopting.com, Lifetime Adoption Adoptive Families Blog, Adoption & Beyond, <\/em>and Severance Magazine.<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her personal essays have appeared in several anthologies, including Real Women Write: Seeing Through Her Eyes <\/em>(Story Circle Network), Real Women Write: The Power of Friendship <\/em>(Story Circle Network) and Art in the Time of Unbearable Crisis <\/em>(She Writes Press). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her collection of essays, Belonging Matters: Conversations on Adoption, Family, and Kinship<\/em> (Muse Literary) released in November 2023. She writes a bi-weekly blog and monthly column (The Beacher Newspapers<\/em>), in which she explores the topics of finding out who you are, where you belong and making sense of it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her third book, Twice the Family: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and Sisterhood<\/em> (She Writes Press) released February 4, 2025. Julie splits her time between northwest Indiana and Sarasota, Florida. She is currently working on a collection of children\u2019s books.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-224","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\nJulie Ryan McGue - Adoptee Authors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/adopteeauthors.com\/?page_id=224\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Julie Ryan McGue - Adoptee Authors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/adopteeauthors.com\/?page_id=224\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Adoptee Authors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-03-07T23:16:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/adopteeauthors.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/9781647420505.webp\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"648\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/webp\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/adopteeauthors.com\\\/?page_id=224\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/adopteeauthors.com\\\/?page_id=224\",\"name\":\"Julie Ryan McGue - 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