The first phone call to my birthmother

'Hello, is Anita there please?' I say

'Umm, Hello Anita, my name is Mark Hoag from Des Moines Iowa, I talked with your husband Harold last week while you were in the hospital...',  I pause briefly and wait for a response, but there is none, 'Did you recieve the letter I sent to you last week?'

Sounding a little confused she replies 'No, I didn't receive any letter'

'Well' I say, Now my hands are shakey and sweating so much I can hardly hold the phone, 'As I explained in my letter, which you haven't gotten yet, I was born in March or 1959, and ummm, I was wondering if you had any children back then...'

In a trembling manner the voice at the other end says 'Why yes, I certainly did, I had a son.....'

Before she can finish I blurt out 'Well I was born on March 28, 1959 in Bangor and the Eastern Maine Medical Center, and I beleive that you may be my birth mother...... I was adopted by a wonderful family, and I was born with heart problems, but they did not expect me to live very long, but now I am alive and well, and all those Doctors are dead....'

'Oh my goodness, I have waited for 40 years for you to call, I have always wondered why you didn't find me, I have never moved from this town so it would be easier to find me, Everybody knows about you, my daughter has registered me in one of those reunion registries, and somebody put me on the internet too...'

For the next hour and 15 minutes I talked with the most wonderful woman, she confirmed that my birthfather is Ellery Fairbrother, and I have an older sister, Rhonda, living in Orlando. I have a younger brother, Butch, and a younger sister, Sally.  The details of the family are so many and so fast I can hardly keep up.  I also have two brothers, which are Ellery's kids.

She relays that Ellery has also wanted to find me and ask her whenever they see each other, if she had heard from me yet. She says that Ellery will be just as happy to hear from me as she is.  She plans to call him and tell him that I have contacted her, I plan to call him myself later in the evening.

I also have the opportunity to talk to Jenny, Anita's sister, who was visiting Anita when I called. Jenny explains that they have all looked for me at one time or another, and that she was so excited I called. Jenny gives me her Email address, and promises to email me photos later in the day.

We talk about how great it would be to get together sometime soon, and I promise to put together pictures of myself growing up, and she promises to do the same. I cant wait for pictures of all of these people, to see what they looked like back then, and to see how they look today.

I hang up, excited, releived and overwhelmed at all that has just taken place.  I have more phone calls to make tonight, but this one was probably the most difficult call I have ever had to make. I had no idea of knowing what her reaction to me was going to be, and I prayed that this one person in my life would not reject me, and my prayers were answered.  I am more fortunate than most people, as I have two moms in my life. I thank God, that I was born to a woman who had the courage to give birth and place me for adoption, instead of the other alternative.