On January 1st, Rachel Rydbeck made a Facebook search post in hopes of finding her sister who was adopted at birth. She got the idea from a friend who found a missing relative using social media, but she was in shock when the post went viral. It has been shared thousands of times.
Rydbeck’s mother, Karen Deckrow, was attending college in 1969 when she found out she was pregnant. She made the tough decision to place her baby for adoption. She gave birth on May 25th at St. Mary’s Hospital in Grand Rapids, Michigan and named her child Rita Marie Campbell. She then placed Rita for adoption. The adoption was closed, so she was not given any information about the adoptive family. She does not even know if they were locals. The only thing she does remember that could be useful is that her baby girl had unusually bright blue eyes.
Deckrow went on to have five more children. They recently decided together as a family it was time to look for her. Rydbeck says, “We consider her to be a part of our family even though we’ve never met her. We know she is our blood and somebody we would like to meet.”
One of Rydbeck’s sisters, Kylie Mannard, found out about the adoption when she was about ten years old, but she didn’t understand the full weight of her mother’s decision until later when she had kids of her own. Deckrow says, “That bond is there; that love is there; that hope is there. I mean, she could be a grandma. I could have more grandkids than the 15 I have.”
The family has received lots of tips about how to further their search, and Deckrow has also completed an AncestryDNA test.
If you have any info, please contact Rachel at rachryd@gmail.com.
