Reunion Stories... borrowing from Crick!

I'll start... and try for the short version! Thirty-two (almost 33) years after placing my firstborn son for adoption, I decided again to try to find him. This time the trigger was my son telling me that people were telling him he looked like Johnny Knoxville. (I have to admit, I checked his birth date out first! Not a match.) This time as I searched on line, I stumbled on adoption.com. I registered and got a match as soon as I entered the info. (I doubted highly that there was more than one baby boy born on the same date in the same hospital!) I now had a name. I discovered that his info was out of date. I found out later that in 2005, he had both married and moved, so that his current address was not yet turning up on line. In further search I discovered his father's name and that the father was a minister (matching the info I had about the bparents when they adopted D). I looked at one of the addresses for the dad and recognized it as the parsonage for the church where I grew up! I checked on the ELCA web-site and D's dad was indeed the pastor of the congregation where I was confirmed and married (and where I was a member when D was born.) I emailed D's dad with a tentatively worded email and when he confirmed what I thought I knew, we exchanged several emails. He gave the information to D who eventually emailed me on the eve of our birthday. We corresponded by email for a month or so. (His wife told me the first thing he did was to go to my church website and look at my pic, discovering that we do look a lot alike.) We met in person for the first time about a month and a half later. Fast forward to three years later: Last Sunday I baptized D's three younger children. (See my avatar for the pic of me with D and his wife J.) D has become a part of our family and invited us into his. (I need to state that we have NOT taken the place of his adoptive family! We've just added to it.) I am enjoying the journey, getting to know this man who is flesh of my flesh and being privileged to watch his children grow.

Hey Kathy! Just wanted to say that you're an inspiration to me as I look hopefully toward meeting my children. This past 5 months, I have watched your reunion with David as it continues to unfold and it's been a source of guidance to me. Thanks for being here and for sharing your reunion! Much hugs today!