G'S Adoption Registry - In loving memory of Danna & Marjorie & Stephanie

I am an adoptee in Oregon. My search journey started after I had my first child. It was 1983, no social media, no computer. I realized that I wanted to learn more about my birth family.  I was adopted by a single mother in Oregon (she was the first single woman allowed to adopt a child in Oregon).. I had no siblings, no father figure.  

Once I decided I wanted to learn more about my birth family, I had absolutely no idea where to start. I had a name of my birth mother, but that was all.  So, I started.. After thousands of phone calls, trips to the court house, trips to the library to look at micro fische, and paying far to much money (for lists of people with that name), I finally had a find.. I found a sister.. but not on my birth mothers side.. On my birth fathers side.. It was so crazy to me.. I had never had siblings, and it never even really occurred to me that I might have birth siblings. My half birth sister was able to fill in some gaps for me, give me some names and other information. She introduced me to her brother (my half birth brother) and told me where my birth father was.

Although I never got to meet him in person, I did talk to him on the phone a lot, and sent letters back and forth.. Again, he was able to fill in some more gaps and give me more information on my mother.   20 years later, in 2004, I had another big break..

I found a half birth brother on my birth mothers side.. He lived in Florida (pretty much as far from Oregon as you can be).. he was not raised by our birth mother either, but he was able to give me even more information.. and the very last person I found a month later, )and 21 years after I started my journey),  was my birth mother. 

After everything I learned, the great experience that I have had and sharing my story with some friends (and quite a story it was.. drugs, prostitution, jail, murder, all the things that make for a very interesting story), a few people started reaching out to me to see if I could help them.  As an adoptee, I think once you tell a few people your story, you find so many other adoptee's out there who you may not have known much about before..  So.. for the last 12 years, I have been helping others search for their birth families. I love it so much, even in the searches that don't have the results that I would have hoped for, to me. they are all learning experiences.  Once I signed up to be a search angel on G's Adoption Registry, I was privileged to to get to know other search angels, and have learned so much.  I feel that the search angel community is pretty much a family of their own. We all have the same goal in mind.. Reuniting birth families...