Wow, so life is beautiful. What else can I say. I know it is not always that way and sometimes a lot of sorrow leads up to these beautiful moments. I'm working now, and only have a little time for everything, so it's going to be told in parts. But hang on it's a good story....
I had been searching for my birth mother for 25 years, not actively that whole time but, every now and again the urge to know what happened, what my story was, would surge and I would search the internet, draw a picture, go through my old manilla folder of paperwork that I have been carrying around with me my whole life and update my information. I'm turning 43 this year and I began to feel more and more that I was going to have less and less of a chance to meet my birth family. I thought, I have ONE life, that's it, and decided to implore my girlfriend Barbie's help. She's a producer, one of my oldest friends, and well let's just say she know how to get things done. I called Catholic Charities to get things started. No one apparently has opened the file since 1968. Darn, so they aren't looking for me...this is what I had feared. Do I want to continue...yes, I do. It's up to me to take the first step. So, I filled out some paper work, donated some $ to the Catholic Church....asked myself the question, how will I feel if they don't want to hear from me. Honestly, will that be worth it? I'm very happy with my life, I love my family and we all get along, I dont' have emotional problems and besides the regular tulmoutuous life of trying to make a living through creative pursuits, I am a generally happy person. Why screw it up?
The nun loses the paperwork, she doesn't call me back, so I have to constantly get up my nerve to pursue this and make more than one phone call. Finally after one more call back, she phones. "I believe your birth mother died" she says. "Oh" I said. That's it. Not much more, she can't tell me much because of the closed records. I only had her name. She asked me if I wanted to pursue her family. Yes, I did. She had 4 sisters and a twin brother, yes, yes I did want them to know that I am interested in contact with them. I contacted the ALMA society, who help with adoption searches, let them know the info I found from Catholic Charities and they were on the case! And that's where it sat for a long time...
They found Danny Fountain. Patty's twin. They forwarded me the number. Now here is something that was very difficult for me. In my "non-identifying" paperwork, it stated that everyone knew about the pregnancy except for Danny, he was away serving in Vietnam at the time and they didn't want him to know. I kept reading this...why did I have to be the one to tell him. I didn't call.
Barbie and I went to lunch. She dropped me off and I said, "oh yeah, Catholic Charities called again, now they are not sure if my birth mother is really dead." She looks at me and says "Just call the brother!"
She was right, I should just call the brother. So we parked, went into the house and I found the number. I knew exactly where it was, underneath this entire pile of disorganized projects that if you asked me to find something else we would of been there all day. We went into the bedroom and I dialed....the previous post tells the rest of this story.
The next will tell about Danny coming to visit me.
I had been searching for my birth mother for 25 years, not actively that whole time but, every now and again the urge to know what happened, what my story was, would surge and I would search the internet, draw a picture, go through my old manilla folder of paperwork that I have been carrying around with me my whole life and update my information. I'm turning 43 this year and I began to feel more and more that I was going to have less and less of a chance to meet my birth family. I thought, I have ONE life, that's it, and decided to implore my girlfriend Barbie's help. She's a producer, one of my oldest friends, and well let's just say she know how to get things done. I called Catholic Charities to get things started. No one apparently has opened the file since 1968. Darn, so they aren't looking for me...this is what I had feared. Do I want to continue...yes, I do. It's up to me to take the first step. So, I filled out some paper work, donated some $ to the Catholic Church....asked myself the question, how will I feel if they don't want to hear from me. Honestly, will that be worth it? I'm very happy with my life, I love my family and we all get along, I dont' have emotional problems and besides the regular tulmoutuous life of trying to make a living through creative pursuits, I am a generally happy person. Why screw it up?
The nun loses the paperwork, she doesn't call me back, so I have to constantly get up my nerve to pursue this and make more than one phone call. Finally after one more call back, she phones. "I believe your birth mother died" she says. "Oh" I said. That's it. Not much more, she can't tell me much because of the closed records. I only had her name. She asked me if I wanted to pursue her family. Yes, I did. She had 4 sisters and a twin brother, yes, yes I did want them to know that I am interested in contact with them. I contacted the ALMA society, who help with adoption searches, let them know the info I found from Catholic Charities and they were on the case! And that's where it sat for a long time...
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| "She's Buried in My Garden" |
They found Danny Fountain. Patty's twin. They forwarded me the number. Now here is something that was very difficult for me. In my "non-identifying" paperwork, it stated that everyone knew about the pregnancy except for Danny, he was away serving in Vietnam at the time and they didn't want him to know. I kept reading this...why did I have to be the one to tell him. I didn't call.
Barbie and I went to lunch. She dropped me off and I said, "oh yeah, Catholic Charities called again, now they are not sure if my birth mother is really dead." She looks at me and says "Just call the brother!"
She was right, I should just call the brother. So we parked, went into the house and I found the number. I knew exactly where it was, underneath this entire pile of disorganized projects that if you asked me to find something else we would of been there all day. We went into the bedroom and I dialed....the previous post tells the rest of this story.
The next will tell about Danny coming to visit me.
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