The Search for My Father

I am 29 year old medical sales rep who has been married for about a year and a half. We began searching for my dad shortly after getting married. My biological mom passed away when I was 2 and my biological dad never knew about me. I was adopted within my biological mom's family by my second cousin. Both my biological parents were both in the Air Force. We had a name for my dad, David J. Leonard, but that was it. We submitted a request to The Locator for help finding my dad. My first contact with The Locator was in Sept of '08.

In Jan of '09 I was informed that my dad had been found...but he was deceased. He died in 1996 from cardio-myopathy which he got from a case of shingles 3 years earlier. I found out that I had 2 uncles and several cousins, a new step mother, and a brother and sister!! INCREDIBLE!! Since, we have been skiing together, and have been to one cousins' wedding. My brother, sister, and step mom are coming to town over Labor Day weekend. We all talk on the phone and Facebook. It's been an awesome experience to get to know my new family. What's been the most amazing thing of all this, is how comfortable everything has been. It's like we have all know each other for years!

Before The Locator came into the picture, I wanted to find my dad for health background. My wife and I were going to be starting a family and knowing the health background was important. At the same time, we are very strong in our faith and felt that everything would be fine if we never found out who my dad is/was. Our lives are in God's hands. Finding out who my dad was, was kind of weird. I grew up my whole life knowing I was adopted but looked at my adopted mom and dad as Mom and Dad. It was as if they were my biological parents...just shorter than me (I'm 6'4" and my folks are 5'3" and 5'9"). But to know the face of the woman who gave birth to me and then to FINALLY see the face of the man who I was conceived from...that was weird. A blessing by ALL means...but weird. I don't know how or what Troy does, but he is definitely great at finding people!

My advice to people who want to find lost family members or friends is first PRAY about it and to never give up. No one knows what God's plans are or what He has in store for us. But all things work together for good for those who love the Lord.

Just a little update. We started this search for my dad because we were planning on starting a family sometime. We didn't know when we would start trying, but we definitely wanted to have kids. Well, at the end of March we found out that we are expecting a little girl at the end of November! We are very excited. I had an opportunity to go on a mission trip to South Africa in early August. That trip just reaffirmed how blessed we are as Americans. God is so good! 2009 has been an incredible year and I can't wait to see what God has in store for the years to come! God bless you all!>

-Chris Z.