UPDATED
10/12/98 UPDATED
10/12/98
I made contact with and met my birth-mother on August 4, 1998 in Seattle! I also met my two half-brothers while I was there, Byron and Blake. I'll be posting the full story of how I located them along with how the reunion went, but in the meantime here's a pic of my b-mom and I.
I really want to thank Cher Caldwell for all her help. I couldn't have done it without her! She also helped out a friend of mine, John Moran, who had his reunion just about 1 week later.
Here's a few more pictures of my brothers too. Click on the image to see a larger picture.
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Check back soon for the full story!!!
Well now you know, I was adopted. No big secret, but it's not something that comes up in everyday conversation.
I'll be updating this site with information about links to adoption sites and mailing lists, but in the meantime I'll just post my story.
This is the same story that I've posted to the various adoption
mailing lists that I'm a member of.
Here goes...
I just got on this list a little while ago and I'm not sure if I've posted my story/information here yet. Wanted to make sure that I cover all my bases so here goes...
Information:
Darryl Brian Levi
Born:Philip Caouette
9/25/66
Los Angeles, CA
Adoption took place through LA CountyB-mother (at time of birth):
Leslie Hughes
West Covina, CA
Approx. age 16 at time of birth.B-Father (at time of birth):
Philip Caouette (reunited)
West Covina, CA
Approx. age 18 at time of birth and in Vietnam.Adopted at approx. 1 month.
It might sound like a lot, but try finding someone (b-mother) that moved out of the area, left no known relatives in the area, probably married and changed name, and it starts getting just a little bit harder.
Story and things tried so far:
For as long as I can remember I've known that I was adopted. It
wasn't a big deal. I knew a couple of other kids that were adopted
and it didn't have much meaning to it at the time.
Never really had a strong desire to search but I was always curious. A couple of years ago I started getting into the internet and read a book about it. It included most of the mailing lists that existed at the time and I saw one on adoption and figured what the heck. I subscribed and after a couple of weeks posted the information that I knew at the time:
Darryl Brian Levi
9/25/66
Born: Philip
in Los Angeles County
At the time I hadn't spoken to my a-mother in a few years (still haven't, but that's another story all together) and my a-dad weren't getting along that well (my a-parents had divorced when I was 7). I didn't want to hurt my a-dad's feelings and wanted to tell him what I was doing, but figured that I had time before I actually got any results.
Fortunately, someone was paying attention and read my posting. Within 24 hours I had a reply stating that they had more information for me and to contact them if I was interested. I was skeptical and wrote back that I thought they were either involved in the adoption (my b-mom?!) or a PI looking for $$$. The next e-mail that I received from her stated "If your a-dad is xxxxx xxxx and your a-mom is xxxxx xxxxx then you were born Philip Caouette, b-mom L. Hughes, and b-dad P. Caouette, both of West Covina." Needless to say I was a little shocked! (To this day, she won't tell me how she got the information so quickly.)
Since my b-dad had such a unique surname I looked for him first. There was a Caouette listed in West Covina so I called looking for Philip. (Since I was named Philip, and his initial was P...) I had reached my b-grandmother! I told her that I was doing some family tree research and Philip had been mentioned as a friend of the family that may have more information. She took my name and number and would pass it along to him.
The next day he called. As I started to try to say it ("Umm, I don't really know how to put this...") he cut me off and said "Are you my son?" to which my response was "I think so." We started talking and soon realized that I was older, much older, than he thought I should be. I told him the information that I had and he remembered a girl name Leslie Hughes that he dated in '65. Well it turns out that he broke up with her in January of '66 (If I was full term I would have been conceived in December) and in June went to Vietnam for 3 years. He never knew of my existence until I told him. He thought I was another son that an ex-girlfriend said she had and gave up for adoption in the 70's! (Now how do I find that guy?!) We talked some more and in that first call he gave me significant medical history before the call was over.
We setup a meeting for a couple of weeks later. When we met we eyed each other up and down and saw very little resemblance. We had lunch and he told me about my b-mom. We ended up going to met his mother, my b-grandmother, and that's where the resemblance was! I had the family facial features down perfectly. He didn't realize it until he saw her and I together.
All this time my a-dad and my step-mom didn't know that I had even started searching. As time went by it got harder for me to tell my a-dad, "Oh, I started looking my b-parents, and found one, and met him..." Finally I had to. My wife had invited both my a-dad and b-dad to our house warming, along with all my a-relatives. I told my a-dad and he didn't take it too well at first and had the expected feelings and questions of why do I want to search? It didn't take much to explain to him my reasons and reassure him how much I love and appreciate him. Well, everyone hit it off great! It took some explaining during the introductions because most of my a-family didn't know ahead of time. They were pulling me off the side and wanted to make sure that they understood what was going on.
Since I was reunited with my b-dad, just over 2 years now, we both have tried to locate my a-mom to no avail. He has gone to her high school and got me a picture from the yearbook and tried to locate her via the reunion committee, but no success. Like I said earlier, moved away, probably married, no known ties in the area...
That's the story. After taking a break I'm starting the search again. I think I got discouraged because she didn't just drop into my lap like my b-dad did, but now I'm back at it full steam.
If you have any thoughts, leads, ideas or questions, please drop me a line at dlevi@vcnet.com.