Girls in Pink...Boys in Blue

Anyone who has ever gone to college knows that Spring Break is a coveted time to either go on vacation to relax or if you have to stay home, it is a time to catch up on all those many projects that professor's load on you each semester.

My Spring Break was the latter of the two. I had planned on staying home. I had two huge projects for my Intro to Ed class, and, of course, I had that bear, that nemesis of mine, biology, breathing down my neck. Work was screaming for me to catch up or fail. My Spanish class was falling behind too and well, the health class that I'd ignored for a whole month could've used some love.

That first weekend, I had only relaxed. I told myself that I could push the workload off until the weekday. After all, I needed the rest. I had already worded so hard all semester. By Monday, I still hadn't gotten anything done. "Tuesday," I told myself.

On Monday night, there I sat in bed with my laptop propped on my lap. As was usual for that hour, my husband was asleep and snoring, and the kids, one on each side of me, were asleep.

I had checked my facebook messages, yet, I searched for more. I pinned a million pins on Pinterest. Then I put away the laptop and went to sleep, right? Nooo...I didn't. Instead, I chose to surf the internet. For some reason, I was lead to that old website from many years ago. You know, the one to find my adopted sisters? The one that I hadn't heard anything from in over ten years!

I wondered, "Has anyone been searching for me?" I wondered if I had had any hits at all. My email address had changed; after all,  it had been so long ago, I couldn't even remember which one I had back then. I tried one, it didn't work, I tried another, still no luck. "I guess I have to give up on this one," is what I thought. Not so fast! I don't give up that easy-I am very stubborn after all. We call that a Skinner trait--after my mother's parents.

After neither my log in nor my passwords would work, I wrote the tech people and asked them to send me the information. I told them the story that it had been so long ago that I didn't have the information anymore. After that, I was done. Right? Wrong! I decided to search the years again. You never know, maybe someone's name will pop up.

I saw many women who could have fit the description, but there is just so little information out there on some of the posts. I looked through the names to see if there was any type of connection. Many of them had a birth mother whose name did not fit our mother's. Then there were some that had close information. Those names, I searched on facebook. I thought, "Maybe if I could see their faces, then I could tell if they were my sister's or not."

I added many of them to my facebook. When there were no more names to look up, I gave up right!? Wrong! It's the Skinner stubbornness, remember? After the website offered no more names to look at, I went to search again on Google. Many of the sites offered false hopes, "Find Your Loved One for Free!" they lied. They were never free.

Then I saw that the state of Georgia had a website called, G'S Adoption Registry. Well, if Georgia had one, maybe Florida had one too. I looked and there I saw it, G'S for Florida! The years 1960-1970 were there, I clicked on it.

Names for boys were in blue and names for girls were in pink. I sifted through the early 1960s until I came to 1964. A little further scrolling and I came to the month of August-girls in pink, boys in blue. Nothing in August....scroll to September...no babies in Tampa or Tarpon Springs. I had to scroll to 1965. Here we go again...August...girls in pink, boys in blue...girls in pink, boys in blue...

Then, I came across a baby girl born on August 26, 1965. I looked at the information. It went as follows:

Birth mother's name: Pierce

 (what?! that's my mother's last name when she gave her daughter's up for adoption).

Birth mother's age at the time of birth: 3o

 (what!? that's how old my mother was in 1965. I was getting dizzy. Could this really be happening?)

Birth place: Tampa, FL

 (another checkoff).

I was lying in my bed and I literally got up and went into the living room. What came next was truly a gift from God:

"All Other Information: I have no hard feelings about my birth mother. I know she did what she had to do. She was 30 when she had me! She had either 2 or 3 children of her own and she was marrying a man who had a couple of children. That's all I know! Please if you know of anyone who knows me let me know. I don't understand what makes my Mother's right to remain anonymous more of a right that to know who she is! I am a human being and I deserve to know who she is, just as everyone out there that knows there MOM!"

Wait a minute! Stop the press! My mother had two children and she was marrying my dad, who had two children! This had to be it!!

I emailed the address on the registry. How could I possibly wait for a reply? Here it was March 20, 2012 at 4:00 a.m. and I had just, possibly found my long-lost sister!!