MY STORY

I am not really sure where to start this. I guess just a bit of background information might help. I was
raised with my mom and dad and two brothers. I knew my Dad had been married before and that I had
two older sisters and an older brother. I had never met them. My dad did not know where they were.
When I was 11, my oldest sister found my dad and we went to meet them. She was married so it was
like another brother also. One of my sisters and my brother came to stay with us for a short time. We
would talk on the phone and things were good.
I guess my story may really start when I was 12. I was asleep one night and I woke up to hear my
mom and dad arguing. I overheard my dad tell my mom she was mad he had his kids and she did not have her daughter.
I don’t really remember what I said to my mom the next day. I just know I was so mad. I always asked her to please
have another baby so I could have a sister. And to find out I had one made me so mad. I don’t recall but we must
have talked because she told me she had a baby and put it up for adoption two years before I was born. She told me,
“In them days you just did not have a baby if you were not married.” I still do not understand that, but
I was not alive then to know how it was. I just know my feeling was that I had the sister I always wanted
and now I did not have her anymore.
As the years went by I was not as angry at my mom. But I always knew one day I was going to find my sister
no matter what. I had a little information about her. I knew the date and where she was born, but I lived 1300
miles away from there. I went through years of watching reunion talk shows and crying wanting so bad to see her on
one asking to meet me, or wishing and fantasizing that it was me on that show meeting my sister for the first time.
During this time I got married to the best guy in the world and had a baby. I was told all the time how lucky I was,
that I had it all, and yes my life was great but I longed for my sister so bad. I always would think how
nice it would be for her and I to go to lunch. Was she happy? Did she have kids? What did
she look like (Thinking she looks just like me, but we will get to that soon!)?
In 1987, my husband and daughter and I moved to Florida. I knew, when we moved to Florida, I was going to
find my sister. We moved to about an hour from where she was born. During the next 12 years we had another daughter
and things were great. I was looking for my sister on and off. Writing letters, and making calls. No
luck.
In the fall of 1998, I got a computer, and spent hours learning how to use it. I had no clue where to
start, until a friend sent me to a web page to help families re-unite. I searched it and found a girl and an
e-mail. She was not born in the same city but the adoption was finalized in the same city that my sister
was born in, so I e-mailed her. She was not my sister, but we e-mailed back and forth, and still talk. (I
am hoping to add her story very soon). She sent me a web page in an e-mail one day to search. By this
time, I knew how to find new pages to search. I would do this every night, until 6 o’clock in the
morning sometimes.
One Wednesday, February 17th, about 3:30 in the morning to be exact, I was done looking at the web pages for
that day. I had no luck, and decided to send some e-mails. As I was doing that, I saw the web page link in the
e-mail from Tammy. As I started looking at the links on the web page, I thought, well, I will just look at it and
bookmark it. I was ½ way down the page when I came across another link, so I decided to click on it. When I clicked
on it a box popped up and asked me the year. I put in the year that my sister was born in and it asked for her full
birthday. When the page came up I started to shake and cry.
My mom was visiting and was in the kitchen. I just yelled, "Mom come here! Mom look! I found my sister!"
I was shaking so bad, I could not click to respond. I had my mom get my daughter, who had just went to bed,
so she could see. She had been helping me search. We filled out the response and it said if information matched,
we would hear from them in two days. It was such a long two days. Late Friday night, I got an e-mail asking for more
information. I added a few things and a few more days went by, and I still had no response. I e-mailed them back on
Wednesday. They said they were waiting for her to respond. Thursday nothing happened. Friday nothing either. About
seven, I e-mailed them again and asked if they could please tell me something and not make me wait until Monday.
Well, my friend was coming for the weekend with her children. She was playing on the computer. I walked over
and told her to check my e-mail. There were two messages from the Re-union Registry. I sat down to read them and in
one there was the email to the person I believed was my sister. I was crying, asking everyone, what should I say? So
here it went:
I said, “Hi, can we please do this on the phone? I can call you or you can call me.”
This was about 10:30 p.m. and I sent my phone number. I went to get the cordless and I was holding it for
about five minutes when it rang. I just looked at it. They were all yelling, “ANSWER IT!”
I said, “Hello.”
She said, “Is this Dawn?”
Then I asked her what time she was born. She answered and asked if her mom was a music student and her
dad a cop. I started to cry and said yes, but mom was a music teacher. Our mom was at my uncle’s
house so I called her three-way, so my sister could talk to her. She lives four hours away from me. We talked
for awhile and made plans for her to come the next day.
It was a long night with about an hour of sleep. I could not even think. I am still kind of in shock.
It was like WOW! I found my sister. I could only walk from room to room, waiting for her to come. I did not know
what to think or what to do. I seen the van pull in. She was coming with her aunt. My husband and I walked out
the door and when she walked around the van, I thought, Oh, no! It’s not her! I was so upset inside that we did
not look alike. And as we hugged (I had my shoes off, I hate shoes), her aunt said, "Oh my god. She has your feet
Karen."
I started to cry and I thought, "Thank you God. It may really be my sister."
A little while later my 14-year old daughter came in the room and sat on the floor in front of my chair. I
looked down and saw that she looked just like her. I knew, without a doubt, I had found my sister. I found my big sister,
Karen.
We each have two children. Our oldest are about four months apart, and our youngest are about three
months apart. There is no end to this story because we are just getting started. I will update this from
time-to-time to let you all know how things are going. If you feel like you need to ask me a question, or
would like to know something about my story and I am not in the chat box, e-mail me or ICQ me

PICTURES OF OUR FAMILY REUNION

E-Mail DawnShae@msn.com