Newspaper Stories

INTERNET REUNITES FAMILIES

LOCAL WOMAN HELPS ADOPTED CHILDREN, NATURAL PARENTS MEET
By ALAN JULIAN, Courier & Press Business Editor (812) 464-7458 or ajulian@evansville.net

Lezli Adams searched for nearly a decade for the daughter she had given up for adoption following a teen pregnancy.
It was an ordeal that yielded more dead ends and despair than anything else.
Then, last winter, Adams was given a used computer as a gift. She hooked it up in her bedroom to see what would happen.
“I didn’t know what I was doing,” recalled Adams. “I didn’t even know you could look on the Internet” for adopted children. “I typed ‘adoption’ in the keywords and just took off from there.”
Within three months the Evansville woman had located her birth daughter, now living in Texas. “I was afraid I’d be rejected,” said Adams. “My sister called her for me because I was chicken.”
Within just a few more months, Adams had a long dreamed-of reunion with the child she had given up in 1968. “She said she was always hoping I would find her, ” said Adams.

Search angels Today, Adams is among a nationwide network of volunteers who make it their mission in life to help others find their birth parents or children.
In the vernacular of computer message boards and Web sites, they’re known as “search angels.” And, like Adams, many of them work for free.
Their work is in big demand. The National Adoption Information Clearinghouse estimates there are as many as 6 million adoptees in the United States, and as many as 500,000 adult adoptees are seeking their birth families.
The rapid growth of the Internet has fueled the searches. Dozens of Web sites have cropped up to offer search services and support for adoptees and birth parents.
Adams, 48, is a member of the Volunteer Search Network. The organization operates a Web site (www.vsn.org) that contains a long list of resources, including a list of search angels, paid and unpaid, who will help birth families reunite.
Another favorite site for information on adoptees is about.com, she said.
Labor of love “It’s become kind of like a hobby,” Adams said. “I’ve had people offer me money, but I say ‘No, I don’t want your money.’”
She works four to five hours a day from a Hewlett Packard computer that sits atop a simple desk in the bedroom of her home in Evansville. She has a filing cabinet full of resources and names of people she is trying to help.
“I get about a hundred e-mails a day,” she added. “Not all of them are searching.”
In her travels across the Internet, Adams has learned what public records are available in different states, and how they can be used to track down people.
Search angels only help in cases where the birth child is at least 18 years old. In most cases, the child is in the late 20s or early 30s, Adams said.
She constantly scans chat rooms, looking for people in the Evansville area who are trying to locate a child or parent.
Lucky connection That’s how she came across Tina Johnson, a 36-year-old woman who was looking for her birth mother.
“I met her on-line one night and I found her mom the next day,” said Adams. “Her mom was living about 10 to 15 minutes away from her.”
Johnson was given up for adoption in Cincinnati shortly after she was born. She grew up with an adopted family in Madisonville, Ky. Two years ago, she moved back to Cincinnati because of her job.
“I had been searching for my birth parents for about 10 years,” said Johnson. “I was at a dead end everywhere. I was pretty distraught.”
Johnson said she got on the Internet one evening and came across a Web site about search angels. She left some geographical information about herself at the site, and soon received about eight responses from search angels. One of them was Adams.
“She kind of stood out because of her background,” said Johnson. “She had given up a child, so she came from the other side of it.”
Johnson contacted Adams and soon learned where her birth mother was living.
“She was right here in Butler County (Ohio),” said Johnson.
Johnson said she had no idea when she moved back to Cincinnati that her birth mother lived there also. Now, Johnson said, she has developed a good relationship with both her natural parents.
Despite their on-line relationship, Adams and Johnson have never met in person.
“She was just so special,” said Johnson. Word of warning Despite the happy ending in this case, Adams had a word of caution for anyone who is thinking about using a search angel: Beware of those who want to charge fees for their services.
Just like anywhere else, the Internet has its share of unscrupulous people whose goal is to take money from unsuspecting victims. They may take your money and then not conduct a search.
“I wouldn’t use anybody unless I checked them out,” said Adams.

THIS WAS THE ONLY "MISQUOTE" IN THIS ARTICLE...I DID NOT WANT PEOPLE TO THINK HIRING A SEARCHER WAS A BAD THING..JUST TO CHECK THEM OUT FIRST...MANY TIMES A PROFESSIONAL SEARCHER IS THE BEST METHOD TO USE.