November 1991
After putting together several clues, I called Shirley, and told her I suspected that I have another sibling somewhere. She became defensive and would not confirm or deny it. This let me know there was something to it. So, the next day I began to wonder where the baby was born. I did not know if it was a boy or a girl except that Faith, my half-sister that Shirley raised, had a dream in April 1990, before I found out in June 1990 about the adoption. She dreamed she had two little sisters that she did not know about. The dream was so real that she went to Shirley and asked if it were true. Shirley denied it, but began to think of me and called the lawyer which ultimately allowed me to discover she was in Jacksonville, Fla.
I also did not have a birth date or place of birth. But, I had a hunch about Deaconess Maternity Home in OKC. I had a strong intuition that the letter M was important. So, the next morning I called and talked to the social worker at Deaconess and basically bluffed my way through the discussion. I said I'd had a joyful reunion with my birth mother and now, to be complete, we needed to find my sibling born sometime in 1955. When asked about the birth date, I said it was so "traumatic" for my mother that she has blocked the date in her mind. When asked if it was a boy or a girl, I said my mother did not see the baby. She asked if Shirley had used an alias name and again I said that it was traumatic and she does not remember. So, the social worker said I could come by the home and place a waver of confidentiality in the file so that if my sibling ever contacts them they would get us together. I went to the home that morning and when I walked in the social worker said, "I've got your sister's file right here with pictures, would you like to see one?!" Would I! I flipped the picture over, but, there were no names. She told me a great deal of non-identifying information, however, no name or location. I did various things to try to locate her to no avail, so in February, I let it go. I said, "If you want me to find my sister, you are going to lead me to her." I quit looking for the time being.
Around the same time, Heather a fellow adoptee from the group, and I were praying together about our searches. In the middle of the prayer, she stopped and said I was going to think she is crazy, but she just had a vision. She said she saw me in a large place hugging a woman with love and peace surrounding us and she, Heather, is near-by. I’ve never had a vision as such, but this gave me hope. About a month later, Heather moved to San Antonio. I thought, "So much for her vision!!"
In April, out of the blue, a woman from the support group called and said she had made contact with a friend who might be able to help. (I do not know who or where and do not want to know.) On April 30, my friend provided what I needed to search. Before telling me the name, she asked if I had any feelings about what it is. I told her I have known for 4 months now that it began with an M. That's wrong she told me. I now had my sister's adoptive name and looked in the OKC phone book and sure enough her parent's live here! My friend called my sister's adoptive mother and pretended to be an old friend of Linda's just passing through. Velma, her adoptive mother, said, "Oh! Linda doesn't live here anymore. She works for the FDIC. Here's her home number in SAN ANTONIO!!" That is the very place Heather moved to! How wonderfuL I called the FDIC in San Antonio and bluffed my way through to get her married name. It is Mackie! That supplied the M for my intuition. So, I called Linda at 1:40 p.m. on April 30. 1992. She was excited to hear from me. But, she was shocked, of course. She did not know she had a sister, especially since I was born after her by two years. Her parents adopted a girl from Deaconness before Linda was born. Her mom sent pictures to the family that founded the maternity home over the years. That is how they had pictures to show me during my search.
We spent a week together in May 1990. We resemble a lot and are very much alike in personality and mannerisms. It has been a great blessing for both of us and leaves no doubt it was meant to be. We recently had dinner together. I am still so glad to have found her.
We went to an amusement park when we first met.
This is Linda and I recently.
