Discovery of my birth mother

A little history....

So in April of 1977, I was adopted by Peggy and Chris Allison. Both of my adoptive parents were from Wy, and had moved to Idaho Falls, ID after completing collage. In 1980, they also adopted my sister Kirsten, but then by some miracle, my mom was able to get 
pregnant and I had another sister born five months after my adopted sister was born. Growing up people would always ask how they were five months apart. My parents told Kirsten and I, at an early age, that we were both adopted,. They did not want to hide it from us.

After getting home from collage, in 1996, I started to wonder about my birth mother. When I was adopted, my adoptive parent's lawyer had gotten quite a bit of information about my birth mother, including her name. I often wondered, through out my teens, who my mother was, where she was, what she had done with her life.

In June of 1996, I met a girl, named Camille, who in August of 2000, became my wife. Well, before we got married, I started to wonder more about my birth mother and thought that I would try and find her. I wasn't quite sure where to start. I decided to take her name, Elizabeth Ann Clark, and started to search the internet for that name. I looked for addresses, phone numbers, marriage licenses, death certificate. I really wasn't getting anywhere. I was finding women by that name, but the birth date was not matching up. I looked for about two or three months and then gave up.

After getting married, Camille and I had a daughter in 2002, named Genika, then another daughter in 2004, named Shay, then we had another daughter in 2008, name Kayla. Kayla had to stay in the NICU for 7 days due to lung problems. One of the possible problems with her lungs, could have been inherited. So, with that in mind, I tried looking for Liz again, but no success.

In 2010, a TV show called "Find My Family" came out and after watching it, I said to my wife, "I have to find my birth mother." I started looking, again, in May. I went through everything I had on Liz. I used what I had watched and learned from "Find My Family" to search for her. I was going to be heading to Boise in the first part of June and thought that if I could figure out what high school she went to I could find her in a year book at the Boise library. I also, called the hospital that i was born at. They told me that if came to the records office I could sign a piece of paper and they could give me a copy of my original birth information. After that I had discovered the she most likely went to Boise High in '77. Going off of the information that I had, I search Facebook for an Elizabeth Clark that graduated from Boise high in '77. A name came up. Elizabeth Blankenship (Elizabeth Clark Blankenship). I printed off the photo and asked my wife if she thought that this person could be my birth mother. She thought that she could see some resemblance in the eyes. I decided to send her a message. Instead of clicking on "Send message", I clicked on friend request and sent her a message.

I said, "I am doing some family research and was wondering if you knew of anybody that gave up a baby for adoption in 1977." I got no response.The next day, June 2, 2010, I went through the paper work with a fine tooth comb. I discovered that I had the graduation year wrong. She had graduated in 1978. So, I went back on Facebook and searched again, using '78 as the graduation year. The same name came up again. So, this time I clicked on "Send message." And the message I sent was, "I am searching for a person that went by the name of Elizabeth Clark and attended Boise High. Also, I am wondering if this person gave up a child for adoption in '77." I sent that message in the afternoon on June 2, 2010, by 8:00 that evening, while at my wife's sisters house, Genny, I decided to check my messages and I had a response. The response said. "Could you tell me what your birthday is please?" I was like no way. I told Camille, Genny and Matt (Genny's husband), that she had responded. I was starting to freak out. I said,. "This has to be here, right? Why else would she responde?" I responded back to the message with, "I was born on Feb. 12, 1977 at St. Luke's." With in about 15mins she had responded back.
She has two kids from another father, their names are Shasta (24) and Aaron (28).  She has a brother and a half sister.

On Jun 4, 2010, Liz and her husband Dwane, drove to Idaho Falls, so that we could be reunited. She got here about 11:00 pm and I walked out onto the sidewalk to greet her with a single, red rose in hand. Her husband dwane noticed the red rose and said, "Oh, great she has been crying for the last three days straight." We all chuckled and Liz and I embraced in a long awaited hug.

It was the most amazing feeling to be reunited with my birth mother. Her and dwane stayed till the 6th and then headed back home. It was such an amazing weekend. Quite a lot to take in, but it is something that I will never forget. Liz and I got to learn so much about each other. She went from having two children in her life to three. Also she is now a proud grandmother. Liz is such an amazing person. She is sweet, kind, caring, funny, and to boot, she is just like me. hehe

In July on the 21st, she came back for the birth of my son.

She stayed until the 25th. While she was here she got to meet a lot of my wife's family and my adoptive parents, Chris and Peggy. She was so amazing while she was here. She took my three daughters and stayed with them at our house for two nights while Camille and I were at the hospital, due to our son being born. We told her that she was very brave taking on three grandkids, without really knowing them yet. Saturday the 24th, Liz, the kids and I went to go watch the Blue Angels.

It was really hot out. We decided to leave and go get some lunch and head back to the hospital. That day was great because Liz and I got to spend a lot of time together. She also enjoyed spending time with the kids.

On September 9, 2010, Liz and Shasta came to be here for Tristans baby blessing. It was so great to get to meet Shasta. She is such a sweet heart. My kids love her. I think they quite enjoy having new grandma and aunt. On saturday the 11th, we all went to the Eastern Idaho State fair. That was an adventure. I have never taken all three kids to the fair. We thought that us four adults could handle three kids.

Think again, even later when we ran into Camille's sister Becky, and her husband Kevin, we were still having hard time trying to keep track. Let's see 6 adults, 4 kids and we were out numbered. On Sunday, the 12th, I blessed Tristan. Afterwards we had a family get together and Liz got to meet a few more family members. Shasta, was lucky and got to meet them all at once.

At the end of September we packed up and drove to Great Falls, MT to see Liz. We surprised here and showed up 1 1/2 days early. That was a fun weekend. We went to a corn maze and the kids sure enjoyed that.

2010 was sure an exciting year for me and my family. Finding my birth mother has filled a void and I feel that my life has now been completed. Liz's family and her relatives, have welcomed me into their family with open arms. I cannot wait to meet more of her family.