Part 5: Reunited with my Foster Parents
Names have been withheld for Privacy.
After my adoption took place my records were sealed as is everyone who is adopted, and the fact that my foster parents tried hiding me, we were not given any information about them or they about my new parents.
But the sadness in that was short lived and my adopted dad who worked for the sherrifs office at that time was able to find out who my foster parents were. So I was taken back to visit with them on a few occasions. My last visit with them was when I was around sixteen years of age.
Life moved on at a fast pace and so before I knew it, eleven years passed before I would go back to visit again. My daughter was two and I was twenty seven. I had told my dad that I wanted to go visit my foster parents again. Because I didn't even know if they were even still living. My foster dad was very ill the last time that I had seen him.
So off we went one crisp fall Saturday to see if we could find and visit with my foster parents. We knew the town they lived in and we knew their last name and my foster dad's first name but that is all we had to go on and a three hour drive ahead of us.
I also had a desire to find out who my biological family was and secretly was hoping to perhaps find some clues out that day but I have always been the type to try not to get my hopes up. So, I told myself that it possibly wouldn't happen today. And if I got to see my foster parents then that would be enough in itself.
My dad, step mom, my husband, daughter and myself arrived in the little town that I last visited my foster parents eleven years prior and where I had lived with them. We had no clue of an actual address. And I had a faint memory of the house that we visited them at. So with little information in hand and no Google in that day, we decided to stop at a local gas station to ask around.
We pull into the gas station, and my dad hops out and goes inside. While in there, he later told me, he asked about my foster dad and if anyone knew him. At first no one seemed too but then they recommended to my dad that he ask the owner of the gas station because in their words, she knew everyone.
So, she came in and he asked her if she knew Mr. So and so. Well, she responded in a suspicious way with why do you need to know about him. So my dad explained to her how we knew him and that he was my foster dad. She then informed him that he had passed about four years prior and that he was her uncle. She then asked where I was and he told her that I was outside in the vehicle, so she asked if she could talk to me.
Out the door they both came headed to the vehicle. My first thought was oh no, who is he bringing out here. So here they came and she gets to the truck and introduced herself and told me that my foster parents were her Aunt and Uncle. And then asked me about my last name and if I was one of the so and so sisters. So I told her that I didn't know because I was never told my last name and that my adoption records were sealed.
She responded with well, I'm pretty sure you belong to that family. You look like them and I remember now you being at my uncle and aunts. Well, one would think that with that information and the desire of wanting to know who my family was that I would have been overjoyed to have just received this bit of information.
But, to be honest I was skeptical and didn't mean to be but I have always kinda been that way and as I mentioned before I don't like getting my hopes up about something and they all get crashed upon. Also, with the fact that she had just laid eyes on me after around twenty three years of not seeing me I was skeptical of whether she had me paired with the correct family. Plus when she referred to me as one of the sisters I knew that I only supposedly had one sister. So I was a little bit weary of whether she was even thinking about the correct family for me. Also I remember being told that my foster parents had raised over 20 foster kids in their fostering career. So, that's a lot of kids to remember especially if you remember their birth families as well.
But otherwise I was happy to have been led to her that day because she informed me that my foster mother was still alive and living in a nearby nursing home. She gave us the directions there and gave me her phone number to call her anytime. She also told me that if I wanted to know more about my bio family to just give her a call.
We left there and went to visit my foster mother in the nursing home. I knew it was her as soon as I entered her room. It had been eleven years since I last saw her but I couldn't forget her face. Unfortunately she didn't seem to really remember me exactly but I did explain to her who I was. We stayed and visited with her awhile and she chatted about how she was going to be getting some oral surgery done within the next couple of weeks. We left there that day not knowing that would be my last visit here on Earth with her. Her oral surgery took place a couple weeks later but she ended up having complications from it and passing away.
I was able to make it back to the viewing, the night before her funeral. My mom and step dad accompanied me there. I was able to see her niece again and also a few of the other foster children that they help raise. It was great to see them again. Some remembered me and others didn't.
But I was the baby there as well. So everyone was older than me and with me being as young as I was it was hard to remember everyone. However growing up I always recalled a girl closer to my age and perhaps about a year younger than myself but then would be a little confused about who she was since I was supposedly the baby and the last one they fostered.
After the funeral I received some photos of myself when I lived with my foster parents. That was a treasure to behold and also confirmed what others were seeing and that was how much my daughter favored me at that age. And then there was the one photo I received. It was of myself and the little girl around my age. There is was, so now I knew I hadn't imagined her.
The mystery still stood of exactly who she was. No one seemed to know. But just a few years ago I was able to solve the mystery of who she was, when I was reunited with her mom. Her mother had been a foster child of my foster parents and the little girl was born a year after me and they would stay sometimes with our foster parents. She had remembered me and shared some stories with me of when we lived there.
Back to my visit to find my foster parents and hopefully bio family as well. We left the nursing home that day and I was filled with joy of how smoothly our search for my foster parents went. I couldn't have asked for it to be any easier. The Lord led us to the right person on the right day. And it doesn't end there.
The following day still just a little skeptical and very nervous I decided to call up my newest reunited foster cousin. Remember she had given me her number to call her anytime. I wanted to thank her and also let her know how my visit with my foster mother had gone. So I called her and she had in the meantime been doing some calling around her own self. She had contacted a supposed bio aunt of mine that she used to actually be neighbors with and had told her that she had seen me and that I was looking for bio family.
Well, of course I started getting even more nervous. Thinking again to myself, I sure hope that this is the correct family because if it isn't then they may be very disappointed as well as my own self. But she was very excited and wanted to tell me all the things that she had found out for me. So I listened and prayed that it all turned out well. And that it was the right family and that they would be receptive of my reappearance. Or even the fact of whether they knew that I even existed.
So, a bundle of nerves I listened to all she had to tell me about what she had been told by the aunt. That day I learned the names of my siblings and somewhat of their potential whereabouts and who my parents were but that they had already deceased.
Still just a little skeptical but maybe just a little more convinced, and the knowledge that my family had known about me and the fact that my siblings had actually been searching for me as well, I thanked her for all the info she had for me and I even wrote some things down. With one being the phone number and address to one of my brothers.
This is part five of many parts
Stay Tuned for more parts....
After my adoption took place my records were sealed as is everyone who is adopted, and the fact that my foster parents tried hiding me, we were not given any information about them or they about my new parents.
But the sadness in that was short lived and my adopted dad who worked for the sherrifs office at that time was able to find out who my foster parents were. So I was taken back to visit with them on a few occasions. My last visit with them was when I was around sixteen years of age.
Life moved on at a fast pace and so before I knew it, eleven years passed before I would go back to visit again. My daughter was two and I was twenty seven. I had told my dad that I wanted to go visit my foster parents again. Because I didn't even know if they were even still living. My foster dad was very ill the last time that I had seen him.
So off we went one crisp fall Saturday to see if we could find and visit with my foster parents. We knew the town they lived in and we knew their last name and my foster dad's first name but that is all we had to go on and a three hour drive ahead of us.
I also had a desire to find out who my biological family was and secretly was hoping to perhaps find some clues out that day but I have always been the type to try not to get my hopes up. So, I told myself that it possibly wouldn't happen today. And if I got to see my foster parents then that would be enough in itself.
My dad, step mom, my husband, daughter and myself arrived in the little town that I last visited my foster parents eleven years prior and where I had lived with them. We had no clue of an actual address. And I had a faint memory of the house that we visited them at. So with little information in hand and no Google in that day, we decided to stop at a local gas station to ask around.
We pull into the gas station, and my dad hops out and goes inside. While in there, he later told me, he asked about my foster dad and if anyone knew him. At first no one seemed too but then they recommended to my dad that he ask the owner of the gas station because in their words, she knew everyone.
So, she came in and he asked her if she knew Mr. So and so. Well, she responded in a suspicious way with why do you need to know about him. So my dad explained to her how we knew him and that he was my foster dad. She then informed him that he had passed about four years prior and that he was her uncle. She then asked where I was and he told her that I was outside in the vehicle, so she asked if she could talk to me.
Out the door they both came headed to the vehicle. My first thought was oh no, who is he bringing out here. So here they came and she gets to the truck and introduced herself and told me that my foster parents were her Aunt and Uncle. And then asked me about my last name and if I was one of the so and so sisters. So I told her that I didn't know because I was never told my last name and that my adoption records were sealed.
She responded with well, I'm pretty sure you belong to that family. You look like them and I remember now you being at my uncle and aunts. Well, one would think that with that information and the desire of wanting to know who my family was that I would have been overjoyed to have just received this bit of information.
But, to be honest I was skeptical and didn't mean to be but I have always kinda been that way and as I mentioned before I don't like getting my hopes up about something and they all get crashed upon. Also, with the fact that she had just laid eyes on me after around twenty three years of not seeing me I was skeptical of whether she had me paired with the correct family. Plus when she referred to me as one of the sisters I knew that I only supposedly had one sister. So I was a little bit weary of whether she was even thinking about the correct family for me. Also I remember being told that my foster parents had raised over 20 foster kids in their fostering career. So, that's a lot of kids to remember especially if you remember their birth families as well.
But otherwise I was happy to have been led to her that day because she informed me that my foster mother was still alive and living in a nearby nursing home. She gave us the directions there and gave me her phone number to call her anytime. She also told me that if I wanted to know more about my bio family to just give her a call.
We left there and went to visit my foster mother in the nursing home. I knew it was her as soon as I entered her room. It had been eleven years since I last saw her but I couldn't forget her face. Unfortunately she didn't seem to really remember me exactly but I did explain to her who I was. We stayed and visited with her awhile and she chatted about how she was going to be getting some oral surgery done within the next couple of weeks. We left there that day not knowing that would be my last visit here on Earth with her. Her oral surgery took place a couple weeks later but she ended up having complications from it and passing away.
I was able to make it back to the viewing, the night before her funeral. My mom and step dad accompanied me there. I was able to see her niece again and also a few of the other foster children that they help raise. It was great to see them again. Some remembered me and others didn't.
But I was the baby there as well. So everyone was older than me and with me being as young as I was it was hard to remember everyone. However growing up I always recalled a girl closer to my age and perhaps about a year younger than myself but then would be a little confused about who she was since I was supposedly the baby and the last one they fostered.
After the funeral I received some photos of myself when I lived with my foster parents. That was a treasure to behold and also confirmed what others were seeing and that was how much my daughter favored me at that age. And then there was the one photo I received. It was of myself and the little girl around my age. There is was, so now I knew I hadn't imagined her.
The mystery still stood of exactly who she was. No one seemed to know. But just a few years ago I was able to solve the mystery of who she was, when I was reunited with her mom. Her mother had been a foster child of my foster parents and the little girl was born a year after me and they would stay sometimes with our foster parents. She had remembered me and shared some stories with me of when we lived there.
Back to my visit to find my foster parents and hopefully bio family as well. We left the nursing home that day and I was filled with joy of how smoothly our search for my foster parents went. I couldn't have asked for it to be any easier. The Lord led us to the right person on the right day. And it doesn't end there.
The following day still just a little skeptical and very nervous I decided to call up my newest reunited foster cousin. Remember she had given me her number to call her anytime. I wanted to thank her and also let her know how my visit with my foster mother had gone. So I called her and she had in the meantime been doing some calling around her own self. She had contacted a supposed bio aunt of mine that she used to actually be neighbors with and had told her that she had seen me and that I was looking for bio family.
Well, of course I started getting even more nervous. Thinking again to myself, I sure hope that this is the correct family because if it isn't then they may be very disappointed as well as my own self. But she was very excited and wanted to tell me all the things that she had found out for me. So I listened and prayed that it all turned out well. And that it was the right family and that they would be receptive of my reappearance. Or even the fact of whether they knew that I even existed.
So, a bundle of nerves I listened to all she had to tell me about what she had been told by the aunt. That day I learned the names of my siblings and somewhat of their potential whereabouts and who my parents were but that they had already deceased.
Still just a little skeptical but maybe just a little more convinced, and the knowledge that my family had known about me and the fact that my siblings had actually been searching for me as well, I thanked her for all the info she had for me and I even wrote some things down. With one being the phone number and address to one of my brothers.
This is part five of many parts
Stay Tuned for more parts....
Comments
Post a Comment