Reunions part 2

It is amazing to me how something simple can set off a series of events that changes your life.

This past November, while staying with my parents in Oregon, my mom and I watched "Troy the Locator" on tv. The show is about a man who dedicates his time to helping people find lost loved ones. He has a ton of resources available to him and seems to get the job done very well. After about two tear filled episodes, my mom told me I should write the show and see if they would consider helping me find my birthmother. So I shot of an email thinking that there wasn't a snow ball's chance seeing as how I was one of thousands writing in every day.

My husband, Dave, asked if I would send him a copy of the email. A short time after getting it, he called me telling me he had never really understood how important it was to me to find her. He wanted to help me find her. Being the former detective that he is, he jumped right in. He pulled out my adoption packets and looked through all the information. He found a birthdate for my birth mother that the agency had forgotten to black out and set to work. The next day he called me and told me he had found 150 Marias with that date of birth. It would take some work narrowing it down. My mom spoke up and said she had heard from someone at the agency that my birth mother had moved to Alaska. So Dave calls back and tells me he has searched for Marias with that date of birth in Alaska. And there was only 1. I started freaking out a little. He told me not to get my hopes up and said he'd call me with more information. The next day, he told me he had contacted the neighbor of "Maria Works" and was able to determine that she was from California, she was hispanic. She was married with two boys and worked at a Safeway. Dave had explained to the neighbor why he was looking for her and the neighbor agreed to "feel out" the situation and give Maria Works his number.

Three days later I get a phone call from Dave. "I just got off the phone with your birthmother." This is when I really started to freak out. "I wasn't sure if it was her so I kind of skirted around the issue about and asked about California. But when I told her I was calling on behalf of my with 'Kristin NAOMI' she yelled into the phone that she had been waiting for this call for ages. She has been dying to find you and wants to talk with you."

All I could do was stare at the phone. My mom was ecstatic and couldn't wait to get all the details. I sat and stared at the wall for a bit. I wasn't really sure what to think or do. I had been looking for this woman for most of my life. This was a day I had waited for for oh so long. At that moment I didn't realize I could feel so many different emotions at one time. It was overwhelming. But the feeling I was most overcome by was fear. And I really didn't have anything to be fearful of. The fear of her not wanting to talk to me was nonexistent. The fear of her not being alive didn't matter any longer. It was the fear that the woman I had always thought of would exist. That I would be somehow let down by the real thing.

It took me three days to push that fear aside and make that phone call. It was amazing. We talked for 3 hours. Hearing her voice and her laugh was an incredible feeling. It was so similar to mine in so many ways. Learning that she loved music as much as I do, that we have the same sense of humor, that we both tend to smell absolutely everything... all music to my ears. Dave had sent her pictures of me and she commented immediately that I was "a Mendoza". My last name was Mendoza! She also told me that I have two younger half brothers who are dying to meet me. It was an amazing moment.