April 24, 2005

After almost 32 years of looking back, I am finally able to look forward!

On April 24, 2005 I picked up the phone and dialed the phone number of a young lady I believed was my birthdaughter and for the first time I heard her voice! Oh yes, it was awkward the first few seconds..but by the end of the conversation we both felt like I had reached the right person. We proceeded carefully, we went through the state registry for confirmation. What a wonderful young lady she is, she has love in her life and has been surrounded by a wonderful, loving family all of her life. What more could a birth mother hope for. She is married with a son. She referred to them as "The two loves of her life".

We have e mailed, sent pictures and spoken on the phone over the past 5 months and we do plan to meet. My husband (her birth father) and my two children (her siblings) look forward to sharing our lives with her to whatever extent she chooses. We want her and her family to rest assured that we will always care about them. Maybe it will become a close relationship, but I know one thing for certain, my life is so much happier just sharing what we have so far.

I do believe there is a reason we found each other at this time in our lives. On August 28th we spoke by phone to confirm that we would each be evacuating ahead of Hurricane Katrina, we laughed at what a chore it was to pack up your belongings, fight the traffic, only to return home two days later and have to unpack everything. This time would be very different, my birth daughter lives near the coast in St Bernard, LA, and I live in metro New Orleans. The area where she had grown up and built her own home was devastated, our home was spared. We speak often and I am amazed at her courage, strength and determination. Her parents who are deceased would be so proud of how their daughter is responding to this tragedy, I feel so blessed that she was raised by such wonderful people. I know that she amazes me and I pray that I will be able to help her rebuild her life and somehow be a part of her life.

© Kerry K Dubuc