Finding My Birth Family - A Story of Adoption Search and Reunion - Part 2
First Contact Little did I know that the day I sent the letter to my birth mother, my Mom would land in the hospital needing a cardiac stent
and the story about the anthrax letters would break. I kept thinking "Great. Just my luck. My Mom is doing to die. I need her for this. And what about my birth mother? I bet she won't even open the card because I sent it without a return address. Who wants to get anthrax?" I was sure God was punishing me for searching.
By Friday, I knew that my Mom was going to be all right but I still hadn't heard from my birth mother. I was agonizing over the anthrax situation, but I pushed it to the back of my mind. So, by the following Wednesday, when I got "the call," I was totally unprepared.
We had gotten a new dog about the same time I sent the letter. I was out on the porch playing with him when the phone rang. My housemate, Lauren, answered the phone. She suddenly appeared in the doorway and let me know I had a call. I asked who it was and Lauren said "Betty." I think I stopped breathing. I know I turned white. Lauren says that she has never seen me panic the way I did that night.
I said "No, I can't do it," and started to back away from her and the phone. Lauren said, "You have to take this call." I said "No." This back-and-forth went on for a few minutes. She literally chased me around the house, trying to make me take the call. At one point, she even told Betty that I was there, she was just trying to find me. Finally, after the last "You have to take this call" and the unspoken message in her eyes that if I didn't take the call she was going to take extreme measures, I took the call.
What followed was a lovely conversation with the woman I had fantasized about all of my life. She sounded kind and thoughtful and overjoyed. She told me about my sisters, the circumstances of my adoption, her grandchildren, what she looked like, and finally my birth father's name and where she thought he lived. He was from Florida. Lawtey, Florida to be exact - about 40 miles from where I live. My birth father and I have essentially been neighbors for the last two years, not to mention the 20 or so years spent living in the same state!
Betty and I spent the next few months emailing and speaking on the phone occasionally, and in February 2002, I met her for the first time at the Orlando International Airport. My brother Seth came with me for support. The first thing that came out of both of our mouths was, "She looks like Mom!" There was something satisfying about knowing that I look like both of my mothers.
PART TWO: REUNIONPage 4: First ContactPage 5: To Meet Him or Not?Page 6: Mistur AndirsunPage 7: Was It Worth It?PART ONE: SEARCHPage 1: Getting StartedPage 2: Stepping Out on the Web Page 3: Finding a Woman Named Jones
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