This is truly a wonderful story about a family being reunited after more than 20 years with some help from the social networking site facebook and a decision by the province of Ontario to open adoption records.
I received a message today from a dear friend who said, "I thought that I would share this with you since we have spoken in the past about how amazing facebook is for reconnecting."
Here is her story although names have not been used and location is not given to protect everyone's privacy. Otherwise it is my friend's story.
She wrote: "June 2009 the adoption registry in Ontario opened, this basically means that anyone who was adopted, or who gave someone up for adoption, or siblings could apply for 'Post Adoptive Information'.
"This is what I did as (my child's) birth mother in June 2009. On October 1, 2009 I received two Statements of Live Birth, the original one that I submitted and the revised one which was submitted after ... adoption was finalized. On this paperwork was... adoptive name.
"My oldest daughter ... was here when I opened the letter, after our initial crying spree, she put ... name into facebook and found that there was only one (person with that name and where the person lived)
"After looking at ... pictures we were both positive that it was the right young (person) and the birthdays matched, so she sent ... a friend request and an email asking ... if ... was adopted.
"When my other daughter ... came through the door she proceeded to do the same thing. We waited and waited for what seemed like an eternity for a reply, and on October 7th ... went on her facebook and screamed 'Mom, ... added me!!!' She checked her email and sure enough ... had answered it that yes ... had been adopted.
"... checked and he was online so she said hi .... wrote back, 'so what is this all about'....she said 'my mom is your mom', needless to say there was a
lot of excitement and chatter, and we got... phone number... and called.... I was on the phone... for about 2 1/2 hours that night and have spoken... every evening since. Our trip to meet (where the person lives on Thanksgiving Weekend) was a huge success.
"It is funny, 4 children, 3 raised together and 1 not and still you would swear that they had all been raised under the same roof. They finish each others sentences and they have the same sense of humor, it is crazy.
"Well, that is my "WHY I LOVE FACEBOOK" story.
"I hope that you have a truly tremendous day, I know I will!!!"
Thank you my friend for sharing this story with me and for granting permission to share it with the visitors to my blog. What a wonderful Thanksgiving story. God bless all of you.
Please send any comments to me at mj.morris@live.ca and indicate if I may share them.