Switched At Birth: The True Story of a Mother's Journey

Synopsis

As seen on the hit ABC Family series Switched at Birth

Kathryn Kennish was delivered the shock of her life when she found out that the baby girl she brought home from the hospital 16 years ago isn't the one she gave birth to and that she has a biological daughter who she does not know. Now, for the first time, she tells her full, extraordinary, switched-at-birth story.

Kathryn Kennish seemed to have a charmed life as a stay-at-home mom in a wealthy Kansas suburb with her husband, John, a former professional baseball player, and their two teenage children. But Kathryn's world was turned upside down when she found out that Bay, the daughter she and John have raised since birth, is actually the biological daughter of a single mother named Regina. This news is followed by the equally mind-boggling fact that Kathryn's biological daughter, Daphne, who happens to be deaf, has been raised by Regina in a struggling neighborhood in Missouri. In her memoir, Kathryn reveals the surprising and intimate layers of her story—from the private details of the switched-at-birth revelation to all that occurs in its aftermath, including Regina and Daphne's move into the Kennish household. In the wake of this immense shift, secrets and previously unexamined issues from Kathryn's and her family's past surface as they are forced to reexamine everything they assumed about what makes a family a family.

As Kathryn's family searches for their own "normal," she grapples with, and rejoices in, all the complications that come along with being a part of, and loving, an “unconventional” family. Her story is for all of us with not-normal families and a vicarious treat for anyone who has ever wondered what would happen if a relative was switched at birth.