Continued from post of 10/17/06......

When I returned the call to my mother, we talked for hours. We continued communicating for more than a year before we finally met in person. My friend told me that it was imperative that I go see my mom and give her the opportunity to look me in the eyes and hold me and reconnect with the child she had lost almost 40 years prior. After speaking with my mother for the first time, I immediately felt a connection with her and knew that I would not be complete until that meeting took place. For some reason, I knew I loved this woman and felt I needed to connect the circle which had been broken by my father years before.

My friend and I went to my house to tell my boys that I had found my mom. I think that was more heart wrenching than the actual phone call with her because my boys both knew how much I had missed out on as a child and they knew the stress it was causing me not having her in my life. They both had told me many times before that they could not imagine someone taking them from me and them not being able to grow up with me in their lives.

When we arrived at my house, I could hardly move my body to get out of the car. My friend had to actually help me out of the car and walk me up the steps to my door. Once inside, I had my friend go in and wake the boys. They were 15 and 12 and you know how boys hate being wakened in the middle of the night (it was around 1:00 a.m.). They thought someone had passed away because they came out to the living room and saw me slumped over holding my tummy and moaning and whimpering like a hurt puppy. I looked up at my children standing there with fear in their eyes and wondered myself how I would have lived all those years without them. I grabbed the boys by the hand and sat them both down beside me and, through the tears, said to them “I have found my mom.” They both began to sob and I knew those were tears of joy for them just as it was for me. They grabbed ahold of me and squeezed me so tight and we all just sat there for almost an hour hugging and crying and my friend and I told them how it happened that we found her.

Over the course of the following weeks, my friend (whom I love dearly) had taken it upon himself to make it his mission to set in motion the reconnection of me and my family. He knew that my fears (both of the unknown and FLYING) would prevent me from making a plan and actually executing it. He and the boys had decided that we all would go together, as none of them wanted to miss out on this particular reunion.

{to be continued.....}