By AMY SHANKLAND
Perfectly Imperfect
Now I had a few potential names for my birth mother and dozens for my birth father. But I still didn’t feel like my yearbook searching had given me enough information. I continued my sessions with the online club.
I took another step in my journey in the spring of 2014. One webinar recommended going through the adoption agency itself to request a search. My “Indiana versus Ohio” confusion set in. I decided to contact Laura once again with the St. Joseph County courts and was pleasantly surprised to find that she still worked there.
“I decided to do some in-depth searching to learn more information about my biological family,” I told her. “But I’m not certain what agency to go through in regards to my adoption. I don’t know if it would be Catholic Social Services in Indiana or the same agency in Ohio. Are you allowed to share that information with me?”
“Absolutely,” Laura replied. “Let me write some things down one more time if you don’t mind.”
Laura got back to me even faster this round, and the next day I learned that I needed to contact the South Bend/Fort Wayne office. I hopped on their website, clicked on their services, and found “search and reunion” information right away.
If I had already registered with the State of Indiana, I could complete and notarize another form, pay $300, and they would begin a search for me. Ugh… more money. But I knew that compared to private investigators, the fee was quite reasonable. I also realized there would be no guarantees.
My husband John was supportive once again, and thanks to the help of Mary, my “Queen of Notarization,” I sent in the check and the form. I received a response in the mail saying they would start the search, but not to expect any sort of information for at least six months.
I continued my webinars and this time had a major breakthrough. One mentioned that some states were starting to open their adoption records. I didn’t think Indiana was one of them at the time, and I found out I was right after looking online. On a whim, I checked out the State of Ohio.
My palms started to sweat and my heart began to pound when I saw right away that the State of Ohio was planning on opening its adoption records for anyone born there between Jan. 1, 1964 and Sept. 18, 1996. I couldn’t believe it.
Even people whose adoptions had been handled outside of the state were a part of this. As long as you were born in Ohio during that time period, you could request your records starting on March 20, 2015. That was only a year away.
The more I read about what Ohio was doing, the more I respected and liked the state’s department of health. The state was giving people a couple of options. If birthparents did not want to be discovered, they could contact the department and have their names whited out on the copies of the birth certificates that would be sent to adoptees. In exchange for this, birthparents would be required to provide medical history information for their offspring.
Even if all I found out was medical history, that would be enormously helpful. This was all becoming very real to me. In less than a year I would have some major pieces of information.
The potential results played through my head. I might end up with medical information only. I might discover that one or both of my birthparents were deceased. I might find out that one or both of them didn’t want to have anything to do with me. Or it might go really well and one or both of them would want to talk to me.