Courtesy of Kate Mulgrew

We sent our forms back in the same week. I was on the set of Star Trek: Voyager when my daughter called me. I immediately flew to meet her and her family.

At that time, my daughter, Danielle, was a junior at the University of Iowa. Later, I found out that she had started searching for me the year before. She wrote me a letter and sent it to Catholic Charities. I never received that letter.

Today, I see Danielle as often as I see my sons, and we have grown very close. She also has a close and loving relationship with my sons, Ian and Alec, her two half brothers. Her adoptive mother died a year ago. Her father is generous, infinitely kind and as solid as a rock.

My daughter's capacity for forgiveness is something I have never seen before in my life. That sense of abandonment was excruciating in her life. There is not enough time to make up for it, only enough time to love. We cried a lot. All we can do is move forward. So we do. When I told her I was writing a memoir that would include her, she was thrilled.

I wrote Born With Teeth with the view of honoring the love with the truth. I couldn't have written the book 10 years ago, when my parents were still alive. I'm writing about the people I love the best in the world.

So, yes, I had fears about telling my story, fears about the judgment of it. I felt shame, and I had a huge degree of inexpressible regret. Specifically, I would have tried harder to keep my daughter. I was young and so wanted my life as an actress. There is no dancing around that. As my friend Beth (to whom the book is dedicated) told me then, it's all about what is best for the baby. But I had no idea of the cost.