In a few months I will turn 84 years old. I never dreamed that one day I would be sitting on a boat in Newport Beach Harbor with two of my newly found half brothers enjoying a picnic and happily getting to know each other. Or that one of them would just keep looking at me – staring at me – and when I finally asked him why, he quietly told me, as tears welled up in his eyes, that I have my fathers eyes.
I have my father’s eyes. I was so touched by that as it, at long last, gave me a living connection to my Dad. Never mind that I had become an engineer just like him or that he and I shared a life long love of fishing. No, it was only in hearing my brother tearfully tell me that I have his eyes that it finally hit me. I have found him. I have at long last found my birth father just as I had earlier found my birth mother through DNA and the hard work of John Suggs. I have found my way home.
I first met and hired John, four years ago, when I was 80. Because I had been born in Pennsylvania, John advised me that the Pennsylvania Birth Records for adoptees was scheduled to be opened in less than a year. Perhaps I might want to wait for that? Luckily I said “no”, that I didn’t want to wait. I wanted to start right away with him.
I say luckily because when my original birth records were finally released to me, John and I quickly determined that the names of my birth mother and my birth father had been fabricated on the birth certificate. I was the result of an expensive private adoption in the 1930’s that had been handled by a private attorney and part of his “services” was to guarantee that nothing would ever come out. No one would know the true names of my birth mother and birth father. The names given to the state and recorded on the original birth certificate were false.
Thank God for DNA and for John’s expertise and dedication. As he always says: “DNA doesn’t lie”. In my case even my original birth certificate lied. So it was only with DNA and John that, after three and a half years, we were finally able to figure out who my birth parents actually were. We found them!
Not surprisingly, both had long ago passed away but they each left behind wonderful families. John helped me to successfully reach out to my half siblings on both sides and our reunions have been a true blessing.
I can’t ever thank John enough for all the hard work he put in to our search and all the support he gave me over the years.
Trust me, if you are reading this and wondering, John will be able to help you too.
Best,
Martin H.
Redding, CT
