In April 30, 2006 at DesMoinesRegister.com yet another adoption search and reunion story was printed about a natural mother and her daughter being reunited. The article can be found at http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060430/NEWS08/604300326/1001/rss01 if you are interested in reading the entire piece.

The natural mother Denise relinquished her daughter when she was 18 years old. Her daughter's name is Ruth and as it turned out they were down the block from one another. Ironically each of them worked on Westtown Parkway in Des Moines.

Denise and Ruth reunited on March 31st through an internet search.

The author of the article describes that Denise has some regrets that last a life time. Denise She got pregnant the summer before her senior year. She hid it for a while and when the school found out she was expelled. There were no programs back then for pregnant teens and she spent her pregnancy at home with her brothers and sisters. She has been sorry about relinquishing to adoption ever since she gave birth in 1970. Denise never had the memory of her babies face as she was not permitted to see her at the time of the birth. Their reunion was the first time she saw her child.

Denise married four months after Ruth was born. The man she married, Willie, wanted to marry and raise the baby as their own. Denise refused because she wanted to marry Willie because she loved him not because she needed a father for her baby. Shortly after marrying, Denise joined Concerned United Birth Parents also known as CUB. Denise went on and had a son a three daughters. One daughter had died at the age of four days due to a heart defect.

Although Denise had a name picked out, she was told that naming her baby wasn’t her right. As Denise reluctantly placed her daughter for adoption she had one stipulation and that was to have her daughter grow up in a home that was strong in faith. Ruth was raised by an ordained Christian Minister and the other parent, who was also religious died when Ruth was six.

Ruth on the other hand has a ton of questions and wants to learn all the details such as was she earl or late, and is amazed at the similarities in their appearances. Ruth knew she was adopted from when she was old enough to know what it meant. It was a part of her life and she really didn’t think about it much. Although as a young child she tried to persuade her adoptive mother to go back to wherever she had picked her up and bring home a sister.

Ruths adoptive mother didn’t share information about her natural mother but always believed that she looked like her natural mother.

Ruth initiated her search in 1996 after her adoptive mother suffered from a stroke. Her goal was to obtain medical history. After learning the records are sealed for 99 years she tried searching newspapers on microfilm but found nothing.

One day, Ruth was on the internet and she entered her name, birth date, and the name of the hospital where was born on a couple of adoption web sites. Ruth’s adoptive mother died in January of 2004 and in December Denise but her information on the internet for one last time and received a call on March 31th.

Denise and Ruth had their first face to face the next day at Denise’s home with the entire family.

It has been a month later and they are still learning about each other. Denise stated in the article that “they don’t waste time together thinking about what might have been.” Denise feels she has regretted long enough and each of them are looking forward to the future.

The purpose of the article was to give hope because it was stories like this that kept Denise’s hope alive.