I am the product of an open adoption. But unfortunately, the adoption wasn’t as open as it should have been. My mom fell on hard times when I was ten, so I didn’t see her again throughout junior high and high school. However, I recently decided that it was high time I tracked her down. Certainly, during all those years without her, I had built up no small amount of bitterness and resentment against the lady. But no better way to defeat the demons of the past than to face them.
So I did a People Search for my mother. I’d never used a people search engine before, but the amount of information avaible was stunning: past addresses and phone numbers - and of course, her current one, which is the one I was looking for all along.
My hands were shaking as I dialed the number, but when I heard her voice on the other end of the line, a huge wave of relief swept over me. It was life-transforming to be back in touch with the woman who had given birth to me.
Don’t get me wrong. It wasn’t all roses and fruitcake. There was a lot of crying and angry words we exchanged over the phone that day - as well as all the phone conversations we had thereafter - but overall, it was a good thing, a great thing to be able to get know the woman behind all my fuzzy childhood memories. Now that I was old enough to get to know her properly, I was glad to have that opportunity, and I know I never would have found him without the help of people search.