It all began on November 19^th, 1986, when I was born.  I was born in Green Bay, Wisconsin and I lived there for 3 months.  When I was just a few days, old my birth mom, Terry, put me into a foster home.  I was in the foster home for 3 months.  My birth mom and my birth dad never got married so they thought it would be best for me. 

When I was younger, my parents told me that I was adopted and I knew I had another mother and father out there somewhere.  I never really wanted to find them at first, since it didn’t interest me.  As I entered the teenage years, I was starting to think about trying to find my birth mom and my birth dad.  I always wanted to know what they were like and I wanted to know who I looked like and if I had any siblings.  When I turned 17, my parents told me that I have a brother that is much older then me and I was really excited.  I always wanted a brother and I found out that I have one.

 In December, I decided to start looking for my birth mom.  I found this website online and I typed in my birth mom’s first name, middle name, and last name and a match came up.  I felt pretty confident about the address so I asked my dad if I could pay for the address.  My dad said he would pay for it since he knew it was important to me.  I guess I got my hopes up too high.  About one or two weeks later, I got the letter back saying no such address.  It hurt me a lot and I was already about to give up.

I waited until January 24^th to start my search again.  I found this new website that gave me several addresses and not just one of them.  So again I typed in all the information and I got about four different addresses.  I sent all the letters out on January 24^th.  I got three of them back saying no such number so I didn’t think the 4^th one would make it, but I was wrong.

 On February 14^th, I received a letter from my birth mom.  When I first opened it I read the first sentence and it said I am your birth mom.  After reading the first sentence I ran upstairs to my parents yelling I found her, I found her, and they knew exactly what I was talking about.  My heart was racing; I couldn’t even finish reading the letter at first.  When I finally got enough strength to finish reading the letter, I found out that my birth dad passed away from cancer.  I am upset that he passed away since I never got to meet him and I was too late.   I also found out that I am 25% Native American Indian and I am part of the Oneida Tribe.   

In the letter, my birth mom also gave me her phone number and my brothers’ phone number and she said that they both wanted to talk to me.  The day after I received the letter, I decided to call my birth mom and my brother.  First I called my birth mom and I was on the phone with her for 1 hour and a half.  I found out that she would think about me a lot and she would always wonder where I was.  It made me feel good that she still thought about me and that she was happy that I contacted her.  When I sent the letter out to my birth mom, I didn’t really know what to expect.  I was prepared for the worst but luckily I didn’t have to deal with that. 

Right after I got off the phone with my birth mom, I called my brother and we were on the phone for an hour and a half, also.  I was nervous when I was dialing since I never talked to him before.  I didn’t know what he was going to be like.  He turned out to be this really cool guy.  He is thirty-six years old now and he is married.  We have a lot of things in common and it was really easy to talk to him.  We both like the same kind of music, we both have asthma, and we both like the same sports. 

Now that I found my birth mom and my brother, I feel like a complete person.  Before I found them, I always felt like I was missing something and I never knew what it was.  I’m also happier now, since I completed my search and I was successful and I didn’t give up.  It also makes me feel a lot better that my birth mom and my brother were both very interested in talking to me and meeting me. 

The lesson I learned from this experience is never give up.  If I gave up after I got the first letter back I would never have found my birth mom.  Even though it hurt a lot after getting the first letter back I still had to research more and keep trying.  This experience has changed my life since now I know my birth mom and I know more about my medical background and everything like that.  I also became more confident after finding my birth mom since it made me feel good that I pushed myself and I didn’t give up when I wanted to.  It defiantly has changed my life in a positive way and this is an experience I will never forget.