I was introduced to Dorothy by a friend of mine about a year and a half ago. We live in the same town and I knew of her but I didn’t really know her. Dorothy was an adoptee and she was born in New Orleans, but she moved to Bunkie because her dad was from around the area when she was about 11 years old.

 

Dorothy has kind of struggled a little bit with identity. She went into this not-really-even-wanting-to-find-family, but helping her to find an identity has been a wonderful experience, and we’ve become very, very good friends. We started the search, and of course, Dorothy came back and she is Cajun on both sides. She had no idea she had a French bone in her body. But going through the search of the paternal side, we were pretty easily able to figure it out because she had a first cousin match. And basically, they weren’t really interested in contact, very skeptical about the whole DNA situation.

 

But the mother was a bit more difficult, and we struggled for about a year. And at one point, I realized that we actually had a pretty strong second cousin match that would help me and I could focus more on. And when I did that, Dorothy was kind of doing the same thing because she has really learned how to do this process and we kind of came to the same conclusion at one time that we knew who her mother was, that this woman that I spoke to almost a year ago denied the fact that she was Dorothy’s mother but we believe she actually is Dorothy’s mother.

 

So, Dorothy and I have this really strong connection going at this time, and I want her to learn to do what I do and I invite her to come with me to Houston to a forensics class that I’m going to. And Dorothy decided not to come but our friend Brenda came, and we’re talking all the way to Houston about Dorothy and her situation and the fact that we actually pretty sure we think we know who her mother is now. The DNA really leads there, and Dorothy should be there with us. And we get to the hotel, we check into Hotel ZaZa in the medical center. And I’m given a card with the hotel key in it and the internet password is written all in capital with a silver pen, and the internet password is DOROTHY. I couldn’t believe it. I mean you get an internet password that says guests or your last name with the number, but DOROTHY? What are the chances that the internet password to this hotel is DOROTHY when I knew Dorothy should be there with me.

 

So, there are little things that happen as we are doing this search that just makes me feel like Dorothy was put into my life for a reason. There are connections that we have. You know, everywhere we go together, we find somebody that knows a piece of the puzzle, and it has just made this search very special for me.