From the time I first met Mary, it took her another three years before she was prepared to search. In the meantime, we got to know each other and had many long email conversations about adoption.

When Mary decided to search, she submitted a petition to the court asking them to release her records for medical reasons. Several years back she’d had breast cancer and thought that might be a compelling reason for a Judge to release her adoption records. The only reason that she offered on her petition was for medical needs.

A few months after she submitted her petition, the Court released her records and she had her birth mother’s name. From the non-identifying info, it indicated that her mother was Scandinavian. She had only been in the U.S. for a few months before she became pregnant. Therefore, there was an initial concern that her birth mother might have returned to her native country.

The positive aspect of her name though was that it was not an English name and was somewhat unusual. With my friend’s blessing, I forwarded her non –id info and her birth mother’s name to a searcher friend of mine. Mary’s search was the first search that I had been involved in and I dearly hoped for good results. Within a few weeks, my searcher friend had located Mary’s birth mother, and she still lived in the area less than an hour away from Mary.

Mary’s 50th birthday was fast approaching and she mulled over how to make that first contact. After some serious consideration, she decided to send a letter via Federal Express to her birth mother. The letter was due to arrive on her Mary’s birthday.
She sent it off with great hopes and was not disappointed.

On her birthday, she received a phone call and her birth mother sang “Happy Birthday” to her. Mary told me one of the first comments her birth mom made to her was, "I had hoped that you would find me before I died”.