When, in her twenties, Sam Sharpe discovered she was adopted, her world fell apart.

In the second of a three-part series on adoption, Women's Editor Christen Pears hears about how Sam got to know her birth parents and rebuilt her life.

IT was 8.30am. Bleary-eyed and still half asleep, Sam Sharpe answered the phone. She did not recognise the Australian voice at the end of the line. "Have you been expecting this call?" the woman asked her, but Sam had no idea what she was talking about. She struggled to wake up, thinking it might have been bad news about her Australian mother. It was not. The woman was a social worker and she had called to tell Sam she was adopted.

"It was a complete shock but I never asked if it was true. I didn't question it because I had always felt something was missing from my life," explains the 29-year-old.

Today, Sam lives on Teesside with her boyfriend and two young daughters. Looking tanned and relaxed, she recounts her story in a matter-of-fact manner, but at the time, seven years ago, she was devastated.

Sam was born in Perth, in Western Australia, to teenage parents who were still at school. They felt they were too young to bring up a child and Sam was adopted when she was just two weeks old, although her new family failed to provide her with the happy, stable home life her birth parents had hoped for.

Her adoptive parents separated and Sam's father moved back home to the North-East of England, leaving Sam in the care of her Australian mother. By the time she was six, her mother had become an alcoholic and found it increasingly difficult to cope. Social services became involved and when she was 11, Sam was presented with a choice: go into care or move to England with her father. She chose the latter.

"It was a real culture shock, I suppose. My adoptive mum was one of four children so I always had family around even when she was drunk. When I came to England I felt like I was on my own. My dad had remarried and had a new family and it was hard fitting in and I was unhappy."

When she learned she was adopted in November 1995, the isolation she felt from family life began to make sense, but she was totally unprepared for the tidal wave of emotions that engulfed her.

"I was in a complete state. I felt hurt and angry. I felt like I was about to cry all the time and it was like a bomb waiting to explode. I didn't trust anybody."

Although she confided in her best friend, she refused to tell her new boyfriend, terrified he would leave her. She spent the next three months in denial but she was no longer sleeping. Her self-esteem plummeted and she felt worthless and depressed. Her doctor finally told her to contact DFW Adoption, where she was put in touch with adoption worker Catriona Morris.

They met in McDonald's because Sam preferred the anonymity of a public place. She felt safe among the crowds and the smell of burgers.

"When I first saw Catriona it all really hit home and I didn't want to face it so I cancelled our next meeting but then I phoned her a couple of weeks later because I knew I needed to talk to someone."

The pair continued to meet for the next 12 months, first weekly and then fortnightly, but always in McDonald's.

"Sam's reaction is very common," says Catriona. "Your world is turned upside down. You feel like you don't belong to yourself, let alone anyone else. You're not who you were any more because the relationships you thought you had don't exist."

The meetings helped Sam come to terms with being adopted but it was a slow process. She was still furious with the social worker who broke the news to her in such an insensitive manner, and her adoptive parents for the way they treated her.

She says: "My adoptive mum couldn't have children so she must have wanted me really badly but by the time I was six, she was an alcoholic. I was angry at that and at my dad too. I had worshipped him for 22 years but he had a new family and he didn't understand what I was going through at all."

In fact, Sam's adoptive father had been contacted by her birth parents two years previously but refused to allow them to see her and gave them the impression she was living and working in another country. Although Sam later learned they were desperate to meet her, they held back, waiting until she was ready. That took three years.

"My relationship with my adoptive parents had always been so rocky, I didn't think I could meet my birth parents," she says. She was terrified every time the phone rang or when she did not recognise the writing on an envelope.

By Christmas 1998, Sam was ready to receive a Christmas card from her mum and dad, sent via Catriona. They had enclosed a photograph of themselves and she sat for ages, staring at their faces for the first time.

"I was completely taken aback. They were very young looking. I had always been missing a parent and all my life when I was growing up, I wanted a mum and dad and family. Looking back on it, they were always my dream. It took my breath away. I didn't know whether to cry or smile."

She suddenly went from blocking out her past to wanting to know everything. She began writing to her parents and discovered that although they had married and had a son and daughter, they had never stopped thinking about her.

She finally met them on Good Friday, 1999, and after spending the weekend with them, she was introduced to her brother, sister and two of her grandparents on Easter Monday.

Everyone was nervous but the awkwardness soon disappeared. Sam discovered how similar her personality is to her mother's and how much she looks like her sister

"I didn't want them to go. When they left, I had a big drop. It was like they abandoned me but I got used to it. They're gorgeous. They're like a dream come true."

Sam has been to Australia and her parents have visited her in the North-East several times. When she had her first daughter in 2003, her mum came to help for three weeks. Their reunion has been so successful, she is taking her boyfriend and children to live in Australia for at least a year.

"My boyfriend has been brilliant. This really tested our relationship but he stuck with me and now he's prepared to leave behind his family and move to Australia with me. We're nervous about it but excited at the same time."

She is much stronger and more confident than she was eight years ago, although she admits she still feels "nervy".

"I still have the odd bad day but nothing like it was before. Everything has worked out so much better than I'd ever have thought. It's my 30th birthday in September and I'm hoping to be in Australia by then so I can celebrate my first birthday with my parents."

* DFW Adoption: 0191-386 3719