Welcome to Back from the Abyss. I'm Dr. Craig Hecock. This is the second in our two-part series on adoption and attachment.

Today, Ridgehouse, who ironically went to the same Wichita Middle School as Shea, but didn't know her then.

Today, Ridgehouse shares his adoption story and his long path of healing.

First, some background info.

Ridge got his girlfriend Rebecca pregnant when he was 19.

They made the difficult decision to give their son up for adoption.

Their biological son, named Zach, grew up in Colorado with his adoptive family, but since

it was an open adoption, Ridge was part of Zach's life and regularly saw him in his adoptive family. But since it was an open adoption, Ridge was part of Zach's life and regularly

saw him in his adoptive family. When our story picks up, Ridge is 35, married to another woman,

and he has his own biological children with her. And he's about to have his world torn apart.

When I hit 35, I was married.

I had five other kids.

And I got a letter in the mail from the state of Kansas.

And they said, we have information that may be of interest to you.

Please contact us.

And we will share. I just had

Thanksgiving dinner with Zach, his adoptive mom, and his biological mom, as well as two of my

kids. And so we all had Thanksgiving dinner together. So I called the number from the state. It's the Department of Social Services,

and the social worker, Tina, says, we've received some information and we've discovered that the birth

mother would like to be in touch with you. And immediately my mind goes to Rebecca Zach's birth mother,

because I'd just seen her, and we had mutual friends.

And so I was really a little confused because we had dinner.

...