"The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen nor touched but are felt in the heart."

- Helen Bradley


Happy Valentine's Day to All! In honor of Valentine's Day, I decided to post a second photo of my son and me. As I have probably mentioned, our reunion is 4 1/2 years old, and I do not have many photos of us together. However, I treasure those that I do have and am very proud and grateful for them. For me, reunion photos are visual reminders of what reunion is all about. I believe reunion is often a journey of the heart to repair that missing or hurt part that needs to reconnect and know your birth family member.

One of the least offered reasons for a birth family search is probably the need to heal and gain some peace and resolution. I feel, however, that those needs are the most prevalent reasons that many people search for their birth families. Although a searcher may not have clearly expressed why they decided to search, I think that the need for wholeness is often a compelling motivator in many searches.

Sometimes the need may not be a clearly defined one, but merely a nagging thought that you just can not extinguish. You often hear terms such as “a hole in my heart” or there is “just something missing”. The need for reunion is often a need to repair the hole in the heart or complete the missing piece of the puzzle of your life.

For me personally, since I lived in denial so many years, I had no clearly defined need to search or reconnect. However, I always had a vague sense of something “missing” or “not quite right” in my life.
Even at the happiest times of my life, something seemed amiss.

While the fact of my son’s adoption will always be with me, I finally have a sense of peace. I embrace the chance to finally love and know my son and am thankful every day for the chance.

My valentine wish for all those not yet reunited is that you someday find in reunion a measure of the peace and healing that it has brought to my life!