The second hit was an adoption registry, so of course my curiosity was piqued. I clicked on the link and it took me to Findmyfamily.org At the top of the page there was a summary that said , "Registrant Jessie Harvey is a birth sibling looking for a birth sibling." The adoptee was born in Indiana. That particular heading didn't necessarily mean anything to me at first, but after I read the rest of the contents on that page, it meant everything.
There was no information given for a name or date of birth under the adoptee's info. Only that the gender of the adoptee was female and born in an unknown city in Indiana. But under the birthmother's info it said her name was Carol Ann Harvey (Close) and her birthdate was September 7, 1953. I was a female, born in Indiana, with a birthmother named Carol Close who my dad thought was around 20 or 21 when I was born. This birthdate of this person meant that she turned 20 just two weeks after I was born. This could be her!!! And if it was, that meant that Jessie was my sibling and had been told about me, so I wouldn't be a secret. If you go back a couple of posts to where I listed the reasons why I didn't want to search, the second one was that I didn't want to just show up unannounced. If this was really her, then that reason too was no longer valid.
Somewhere along the way, I took Josiah and dropped him off at his playdate. I ran a quick errand and hurried home to keep looking. I googled as fast as I could and I was getting some results.
"Carol Harvey + Jessie Harvey" resulted in finding Jessie's birth record. Carol was listed as the mom and Ron Harvey as the dad. It was at this time that I found out Jessie's middle name was Arlene and realized she was a girl. Up to that point I thought I had found a brother. (sorry Jessie!)
Now with three names, I easily found Carol listed in a family tree. This told me that she had been married twice. She not only married Ronald Harvey who was the father of Jessie and another girl, Jenna, but had first been married to a man named David Gee who was the father of two boys, Brad and Brent. I was overwhelmed. If this was her, I had four siblings. I was trying to not get too excited in case it ended in disappointment, but I couldn't help myself. My hands were shaking.
With a larger number of names to help me identify people, I turned to Facebook. Looking for Carol produced no results. I could not find Jessie or Jenna, but was able to find the boys and their wives. Some of the pages were pretty private, but Alyssa, who is Brent's wife, had a page that was fairly open. On her page I was able to see her friends. I started looking through the list of people and then I saw it. It was a profile picture of a dog and underneath it said, "Carol Harvey". My heart stopped. Then it began pounding so hard I thought it was going to fall out of my chest.
I clicked on the picture and it took me to her page. Her timeline was private, so I moved to her photo section. I clicked on the profile picture album. It was full of memes and pictures of dogs. Every now and then there was an old picture of one of her kids. But then I saw it.....it was a picture of her. I opened it up and just sat there staring at her face.
It was her. It had to be.In her face, I saw my brown, squinty eyes. I saw hints of high cheekbones hidden under the roundness of her face. I saw the same high forehead I have always struggled to cover. And then right down the middle of her forehead was the very same wrinkle that I have on mine.
I couldn't believe it. I texted the link to her Facebook profile to Steve and said, "I think I have found my birth mom."
And I had to leave to go pick up Josiah....
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