Twelve years for stealing a child

"As she grew up in Connecticut under the name Nejdra Nance, the girl became increasingly suspicious of her own identity. Pettway ultimately told her a part-truth, admitting she was someone else's daughter but claiming she had been willingly given away by a drug addict.

Carlina White said she browsed the website of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children for clues to her identity. After matching a photo of herself with one on the site, she tracked down her true mother and they reunited in January 2011. A DNA test confirmed they were mother and child"

The above was quoted from a AP story about a baby that was taken from her mothers arms in 1988.  The baby was sick so she took it to the hospital and handed it to a nurse, or rather to a lady dressed as a nurse.

This story is interesting to me.  A couple adopted a baby. The child had a white mother, who was a crack-addicted prostitute and a black father.  The adoptive parents are well off, a white comptroller and his black accountant who is successful in her own right.  The race of the people involved in this story aren't important except that one would never know the child and her parents were not related by birth because of race. 

I have a few issues with their parenting style but still, the couple seem to be capable parents and the child is a beautiful highly intelligent girl.  She is now around thirteen and has never been told she was adopted.  Like Carlina White, one day this girl may begin to doubt her parentage.  If she discovers on her own that she is adopted how will she handle it?  Is the fact that she is now old enough to understand going to lessen the shock of being told the truth?  The girl and her father are close.  Will learning the truth distroy that relationship?   How will she handle the fact that the man she has loved and trusted the most has been lying to her all these years? 

I know growin up that one of the cruelest things siblings can say to each other is "You were adopted".  It's taken the same as if telling them that they are not really part of the family but their own family never wanted them.  Actually, it is worse but not only did your real parents not want you but they disliked you enough to give you away.  That is a horrible discovery for a child. 

In the case I cited above, the daughter apparently did not have a bond with her parent and has not developed one her her biological mother and relatives either.  There is a lot of stress, resentment, pain, and mistrust still to deal with. 

I wonder if the couple I know will one day face the truth about their relationship or if everyone will try to live their lives out, believing a lie or deneying the truth.