In 1990, I gave birth to a beautiful little boy, my son Luke.  He was so incredible and such a joy to me.  I couldn't believe I had finally started my own family and would sit for hours just looking at my son. 
    Suddenly, when Luke was only 3 1/2 months old, he became very ill.  No one could figure out what was wrong with my son.  The only thing that we knew was that he was in pain and we couldn't seem to fix it.  He was admitted to one of the major hospitals in the Chicago area and they proceeded to perform tests on him to try and discover the nature of Luke's problem.  They began with a test for spinal meningitis which involves doing a spinal tap to retrieve spinal fluid for testing (this is a very difficult and painful process).  Due to this particular test, my son developed a very large hematoma (bruise) on his back and his hemoglobin level (blood count) dropped so low that he slipped into shock and we were rushed down to the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, his life now at stake.
    In some ways, this bleeding in his back proved to be a blessing in disguise as the doctors finally knew to look for a blood related disease.  Upon study of my son's blood and mine, they discovered that Luke had hemophilia type "A" in its severest form which I carried in my genetic make up.
    This is the discovery that prompted me to search for my birth family.  I had to know where this came from and what else could possibly be in store for my child, any future children and myself and began my nine year search for my birth family.
    I first went to my Mom and told her that I wanted to search, that I needed to search.  We sat and talked (and cried) together and she told me what little that she knew.  She and Dad were not told much of anything and certainly nothing that I could use but, Mom being the wonderful person that she is, made some phone calls which resulted in her placing the file from the attorney who handled my adoption in my hands a few days later.
    It was such a shock to see myself listed under a different name than the one I had had for my entire life and more shocking to find the names of my birth parents and their ages at the time the papers were filed.  I then fought the hospital in which I was born for my medical records and finally received those as well.  After that, I read books on searching and banged my head against a wall for years trying to find someone who was related to my birth parents to no avail.  In February of 2000, I got on the internet and found AIML and Heart of Triad email lists.  On one of these lists, I found a search angel.  She gave me a list of women and a list of men who could possibly be my birth parents. 
    WOW!  Now I really had something to work with.