Word: searchingly
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...week in Dallas. The residents of 3,400 households were sent letters asking them to take anonymous AIDS tests and answer questions about their sexual practices and drug use. Some AIDS groups protested, charging that the money used for the survey could be better spent on treatment and the search for a cure...
...high school yearbook and see a woman who looked like me." On page 15 of the 1952 yearbook, Szymczak's fantasy came true. The smile was the same one Szymczak saw in the mirror; the graduation quote: "I'm just the girl you're looking for." The long search ended with a three-hour call from a pay phone. By the end of the conversation, it was after midnight on the second Sunday in May. Patricia Szymczak smiled and wished her newfound relation a happy Mother...
...seekers sometimes hire "search consultants" and go to great lengths, even illegal ones, to find their kin. "I'm calling about a probate matter" and "I'm doing genealogy" are typical little white lies. Many justify their actions with the claim that they are victims of adoption, robbed of their heritage or shamed into giving up an illegitimate child. Their anger and desperation have led some psychologists to conclude that adoption leaves a permanent wound. "Birth parents and adoptees are amputees in our society," says Los Angeles psychologist Annette Baran, who specializes in adoption- related counseling. Says she: "I think...
...sometimes the outcome is very bad. Some search for decades to no avail; others learn that their child has been abused, that their mother committed suicide or that they are the product of incest. Even a happy reunion can produce "an overwhelming feeling of anger and confusion, and rearrange everything in one's life," says Linda Brown, co-author of a forthcoming book on the subject, Birthbond...
...Searches can take unexpected turns. San Antonio public school counselor Claude Thormalen, 49, not only found his mother but learned from her that he had an older half sister Nancy, who had also been given up for adoption. To his amazement, Nancy turned out to be a high school acquaintance. Gayle Beckstead, 55, who now works as a search consultant in Simi Valley, Calif., learned of a sister -- who hadn't been put up for adoption. When they met, Gayle found a depressed high school dropout who had given up four out-of- wedlock children. The sister regarded the middle...