I may have an opportunity to learn who my birth mother is.

For those who may recall, I recently lost my mother to cancer. This is the woman who raised me from the age of 7 days; this is who I have and will always call "Mom".

But she was not my biological mother.

For my whole life I've known I was adopted, but I've never known who my birth parents are. I was given small gifts that my birth mother made sure my new parents would give to me when I became older. A ring, some books about Jesus, and a letter. There was also a document sent to my parents by the case workers who handled by adoption which described the heritage and religious orientation and physical appearance of my mother, as well as the physical appearance of my biological father. But no names, no identifying information whatsoever.

In the letter, she told me she wanted me to be in a family with 2 loving parents. This combined with the lack of information about my father led me to believe that she would've been a single mother, perhaps very young. Nevertheless, any ideas I surmise from the little clues I've been given amount to nothing more than speculation.

But I've learned in just the past few hours that a law is about to be enacted on January 1st in my state which will grant access to adoptees to file for a copy of their original birth certificates with their birth parent(s) name(s) on them.

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With the current law in the state of Missouri, the birth certificate an adoptee receives is altered to include the names of the adopted parents and to provide confidentiality to the birth parent(s). With this new law, an adoptee can file for their original certificate for a $15 fee when they turn 18. The birth parents can have their information redacted to retain confidentiality, so if that's what my parents want after 38 years then it's possible that I could get a copy that has the info I'm looking for completely blacked out if they happen to beat me to the punch in filing.

It's still worth a shot, and the $15 fee.

My sister is in the same boat I am. She has talked to me on several occasions about how she's considered starting her own search. But with this new change, it may be as easy as mailing in a form.

I've already filled mine out. Just need to send it in.

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