As an infant I was adopted. I was in foster care the first two months of my life and then settled with the family I have known and loved ever since. They never hid that I was adopted from me.
My life has always felt like a puzzle with a section of pieces left out, that final clue to who I am. In high school I started searching and joining registries online. My project for my internet class wound up being a site I created to be a small registry. In either my junior or senior year I joined a grass roots group working to change adoption laws in Missouri and make them open, as this state is one of the most closed in the country. It has been some time since I was quite that dedicated, but I always searched and it was never far from my mind.
On Friday at work I received an email with a strange person trying to friend me on facebook. I didn't read the attached note, since I had been sneaking a peek at my phone and wasn't supposed to really be using it on shift. Figuring it was spam, I stuffed my phone away to deal with it later. Then a coworker called my name and said the same person had IM'd her on facebook saying she desperately needed to reach me and asking for my phone number. I had this odd premonition that it had to do with my birthmother but shook that off as ridiculous and went back to work. I couldn't shake the urge, though. Finally I opened the email and saw the note.
"I know who your mother is. I am your sister and I have been looking for you for 10 years. I hope you're still interested in finding her. I found your website..."
Instantly I logged off the phone at work and ran to the breakroom where I started hyperventilating, ran to my boss and scared him senseless by bursting into tears in front of him. He gave me 20 minutes off the phone to call her. We kept testing each other with what little information we had to make sure it was the real thing. Finally, after my shift, I called her back and she conferenced in my birth mother. There was no denying the information that matched up.
My boss let me take every last scrap of vacation I had left and I drove to the town I'd grown up in and met them there. We are all clearly related, so identical to one another. They gave me information on where to find my birthfather and I've had some contact with him as well. I have two half sisters, two half brothers, two nephews, a niece... so much family and they are all so warm and loving.
I want to move back to my home town, have missed St. Louis since I left, and now I have all the more reason to move back. Words cannot express the emotions I've been through this week. I'm practically speechless. Right now I just have to hope my financial situation will improve so I can move. Most of my adoptive and birth family live in that area so it would be good on multiple levels.
My life has always felt like a puzzle with a section of pieces left out, that final clue to who I am. In high school I started searching and joining registries online. My project for my internet class wound up being a site I created to be a small registry. In either my junior or senior year I joined a grass roots group working to change adoption laws in Missouri and make them open, as this state is one of the most closed in the country. It has been some time since I was quite that dedicated, but I always searched and it was never far from my mind.
On Friday at work I received an email with a strange person trying to friend me on facebook. I didn't read the attached note, since I had been sneaking a peek at my phone and wasn't supposed to really be using it on shift. Figuring it was spam, I stuffed my phone away to deal with it later. Then a coworker called my name and said the same person had IM'd her on facebook saying she desperately needed to reach me and asking for my phone number. I had this odd premonition that it had to do with my birthmother but shook that off as ridiculous and went back to work. I couldn't shake the urge, though. Finally I opened the email and saw the note.
"I know who your mother is. I am your sister and I have been looking for you for 10 years. I hope you're still interested in finding her. I found your website..."
Instantly I logged off the phone at work and ran to the breakroom where I started hyperventilating, ran to my boss and scared him senseless by bursting into tears in front of him. He gave me 20 minutes off the phone to call her. We kept testing each other with what little information we had to make sure it was the real thing. Finally, after my shift, I called her back and she conferenced in my birth mother. There was no denying the information that matched up.
My boss let me take every last scrap of vacation I had left and I drove to the town I'd grown up in and met them there. We are all clearly related, so identical to one another. They gave me information on where to find my birthfather and I've had some contact with him as well. I have two half sisters, two half brothers, two nephews, a niece... so much family and they are all so warm and loving.
I want to move back to my home town, have missed St. Louis since I left, and now I have all the more reason to move back. Words cannot express the emotions I've been through this week. I'm practically speechless. Right now I just have to hope my financial situation will improve so I can move. Most of my adoptive and birth family live in that area so it would be good on multiple levels.
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