Courtney

We found her. Well, actually she found us. Pam and I have been searching for about 3 years now and it finally paid off. When my mom told me about the daughter she gave up before she married my dad I was about 13. Over the years I have wondered about her and once I found out that Pam knew about her too, we would talk every so often about her. I always wondered how she was doing and what she looked like. I wondered if our interests would be similar and if she’d be active in the church. I now know the answers to my questions…but I’m getting ahead of myself.
After Chental died Pam and I set out to find our older half sister. We followed a couple of leads that eventually lead to nothing. I enlisted the help of Kevin, my then boyfriend, after one lead turned up cold. He offered his help by talking to a friend but we broke up before anything really panned out. It was then that I put up a profile on adoption.com. After a few months though we felt a little downtrodden and let our efforts dwindle. Pam and I would talk about it every couple of months but it was mostly just conversation.
I wasn’t expecting the email I got last tuesday on facebook. It was from a girl named Courtney. It said she was pretty sure I was her sister. She left her number. My mind was a swirl of emotion. I couldn’t believe it. It said she had seen my profile on adoption.com and the information was about 90% the same. I immediately called her. It was so refreshing to hear her voice. She told me a number of things that had written on her health history and given to her when she was born. I realized as she was going over each thing that she had memorized it since this was the only thing she had from her birth parents. I confirmed many of the facts that she had on that paper but there were a couple of things I hadn’t heard before. We talked for an hour and by the end I really wished she were my sister. I called my mom right after hanging up with Courtney. I asked her about the couple of facts that I didn’t recognize when Courtney had said them and my mom confirmed them. With a sigh of relief I said, “Mom, we found her.” I told her about my conversation with Courtney and gave her Court’s number. She said she’d call that night when she could be alone. I then texted Pam. I just wrote -we found her. She called me 1/2 an hour later crying. Once again, I relayed my conversation with Court to Pam. She was as excited as I felt. All that night and into the next day I would get these bursts of happiness. My smile was gianormus. Court and I have been corresponding through email since we talked on Monday. It feels so good to have found her. Turns out she grew up in Huntington Beach and we even have some mutual friends. The kicker though is that she went to high school with Kevin. Apparently her family is really good friends with his family. Crazy. It was such crazy news that I actually called Kevin and told him. Anyway, tonight my mom, Pam, and I are driving to Westwood to meet her in person. She lives there with her husband and 2 kids. I have nieces. I am so excited.

12.6.2009