{"id":168505,"date":"2017-07-12T10:14:58","date_gmt":"2017-07-12T14:14:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=168505"},"modified":"2017-07-11T21:23:40","modified_gmt":"2017-07-12T01:23:40","slug":"overcoming-what-ifs-found-unexpected-blessing-in-birth-family","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/overcoming-what-ifs-found-unexpected-blessing-in-birth-family\/","title":{"rendered":"Overcoming the &#8216;what-ifs&#8217;: I found an unexpected blessing in my birth family"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;\" class=\"sharethis-inline-share-buttons\" ><\/div><p>I was born in February of 1963 and was adopted at birth by a wonderful family who took me in as their own. I was told stories about how they got the opportunity to choose me, and that I was special to them. My adoptive parents had three biological children; I was the only one who was adopted.<\/p>\n<p>Though I was curious about my biological family throughout my early years, I was busy growing up, getting married, and having children of my own&#8230; and I just didn&#8217;t have the time or money to do the research necessary to find information about my birth parents.<\/p>\n<p>That is, not until 1993, 30 years after my birth.<\/p>\n<p>I wrote a letter that year to the Court system in Hawaii, where I was born. My adoptive mother knew I would someday want to find my biological family, so she had happily given me what little she had &#8212; a court case number and the name of a spunky, young, red-headed lawyer who had handled my adoption. After I wrote my letter, that same red-headed lawyer, who had become a family court judge, wrote back. She also shared with me what little she could, since the law prohibited sharing the names of my biological parents without their permission.<\/p>\n<p>Thanks to this information, I learned that my biological mother was in her early 30&#8217;s when she had me, and my father (who was not her husband at the time), was Irish and was in the Air Force. My next step was to hire a private investigator &#8212; but it would be another 20 years before my case was finally assigned to a private investigator. By this time, it was April 2014.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/liveaction.org\/petition\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-160409\" src=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/DefundAd-400b-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"170\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>After an approximately three-week wait, we received a letter in the mail. My husband opened it after I told him it was probably just more paperwork from the private investigator that we needed to fill out. I was wrong. My husband looked it over and then looked at me. &#8220;I just read your mom&#8217;s name,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>I didn&#8217;t believe him at first, but it was true! Finally, a name. Finally, a place. And finally, a peace. But with a bit of sadness too, because I learned that my mother had passed away just three years before.<\/p>\n<p>I had always wondered if I had any siblings, since my mother was older when she had me, and the answer was <em>yes<\/em>. There was one name listed, a brother, with a phone number. &#8220;Oh my gosh,&#8221; I said in disbelief. This is real!<\/p>\n<p>It took me about a week to get the courage to call that number. I battled with myself&#8230; so many &#8220;what-ifs.&#8221; But one night, at the prompting of my husband, I did it. I called.\u00a0A woman answered &#8212; my sister in law. The conversation was easy and we were both excited as she told me that my brother would be so happy that I found them! Wait&#8230; <em>them<\/em>?<\/p>\n<p>I learned that I had four half siblings, along with one full-blood brother!<\/p>\n<p>The next few days were a blur as I talked to each one of them, experiencing both tears and laughter. It turns out they all knew about the baby girl that mommy placed for adoption; they always wondered where she went, who she was with, and if she was okay.<\/p>\n<p>The first sibling I met was my full brother, John, the weekend of July 4th in 2014. It was wonderful!\u00a0Then my husband and I made a trip to visit the others later that summer. What a reunion it was!<\/p>\n<p>Today, we all get along as if we had known each other all of our lives. I truly love them, and they love me. We have even vacationed together, and we try to see each other a few times a year.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Before I was formed, You, oh Lord, saw me in my mother&#8217;s womb.&#8221; This is my favorite scripture: Psalm 139. God&#8217;s perfect plan, His perfect timing, and His perfect love, seen in my life through the miracle of my adoption and reunion with my biological family, still amaze me!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I was born in February of 1963 and was adopted at birth by a wonderful family who took me in as their own. I was told stories about how they got the opportunity to choose me, and that I was special to them. My adoptive parents had three biological children; I was the only one [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":511,"featured_media":90991,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[7077],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Overcoming the &#039;what-ifs&#039;: I found an unexpected blessing in my birth family<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Though I was curious about my biological family throughout my early years, I didn&#039;t do the research about my birth parents -- not until 30 years later.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/overcoming-what-ifs-found-unexpected-blessing-in-birth-family\/\" 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