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For some adoptees, newfound family is the best present New state law let them find birth relatives, reason to celebrate By Dani Dodge Mike Horn never had a big family Christmas. Adopted as a toddler, Horn never got on well with his dad. He left home at 15. Until he married 3� years ago, the 47-year-old rarely celebrated the season with anyone but his daughter and his best buddy. But in May, the state began releasing birth certificates to adoptees. Horn, like more than 5,000 others, requested the documentation of his birth. Now he�s thrilled to be spending Christmas with three brothers he never even knew he had. "In the movies, you see families connect at Christmas and if it�s something you never had, you claim it�s the cold and allergy season and reach for a tissue," Horn said. "Those who have (family), they don�t get it because they�ve always had it." But now it�s happiness that has Horn reaching for the tissues. "All these mushy brothers � they are beggin� me, �You got to come see us. This is our first Christmas.� " Horn said. "It�s weird, but there�s nothing like it." In 1998, Oregon voters passed a law that allows adult adoptees to see their birth records. Six moms who had put up children for adoption and wanted to remain anonymous challenged the law in court. Those court battles ended in May when the Supreme Court declined to keep the law from going into effect. Since then, the state has sent out 5,210 birth certificates, said Chan Vanarath, the supervisor in the certification unit of the state�s vital statistics department. "We are still getting 30 to 50 requests a week," Vanarath said. "A few people have written us and said they found their families and thanked us." Not all the searches have happy endings, said Patricia Florin, who helps run a support group for birth parents, adoptees and adoptive parents. Florin she said she�s heard both of disappointing outcomes from the searches as well as many positive ones. And she said that many of those seeking birth certificates aren�t on active searches for their birth parents. "It�s about reclaiming their truth," Florin said. "It�s not just about finding. That�s a piece of many, but it�s also about reclaiming their past and sometimes the birth certificate is enough." Since May, the Mail Tribune has written a number of stories about adoptees who received their birth certificates. Some who got the paperwork never did find any of their birth relations. Others, like George Campbell of Medford and Bob Johnson of Central Point, found some family members, but it�s not going to drastically change how they celebrate the holidays. For Johnson and Campbell, their newfound relatives live too far away for a Christmas visit, so the only change in their holiday plans has been to add new names to the Christmas card list. Campbell found a brother in the Bay area. "The logistics of it put a damper on some of the things we�d like to do," Campbell said. "But I know I�ll give him a call on Christmas at least. He�s a very personable and interesting person." Johnson found a huge extended family and said there�s been more Christmas cards going in and out of his house than any previous Christmas. "I�ve got about 90 more relatives than I ever had in my life," Johnson said. "We�ve been accepted openly by everybody and everyone is just overjoyed to death to have us onboard." "It�s been the greatest thing that has ever happened in my life." With his birth certificate in hand, Horn was able to track down one full brother and two half-brothers on his father�s side. All the brothers live in Roseburg. Horn has had nearly a dozen get-togethers with one or more of the brothers since his first meeting in June. Two of the brothers went to Horn�s Applegate home to celebrate Thanksgiving. Horn had been in an accident the day before Thanksgiving, but instead of canceling plans, the brothers came anyway and pitched in to help, said Horn�s wife, Rachel. The couple have two children Kym, 15, and Justin, 10. "They were right there for us," said Rachel. "My son was bouncing all over the place and they played with him and it was great. Randy (one of the brothers) was never more than five feet away from Mike." But despite the joy of having new family, there is some nervousness. Rachel said that Mike actually tried to back out of having Christmas in Roseburg a few days ago. "I think he�s nervous again. Every time a new thing comes up, he�s nervous," Rachel said. "The new birthday and the new Thanksgiving. He doesn�t know what to expect." Rachel said Mike struggles over things like what kind of gifts to give a family at Christmas. "He�s always had him, his daughter and his buddy, and that�s his Christmas," Rachel said. "Now he�s got him, his daughter, my family, his buddy and this new family." But Rachel said they are working through issues of how to incorporate new traditions into their expanding family. This will be their first Christmas not to wake up on Christmas morning in their own home, so they figure the kids will wait to see what Santa left in the stockings until they get home from Roseburg. They hope by next Christmas they will have even more new family. They are continuing to search for people related to Horn�s mother, who they�ve heard may have died in a fire in Eastern Oregon. Rachel noted: "That will be our goal for 2001. To find the other side." Reach reporter Dani Dodge at 776-4471, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2000 Mail Tribune, Inc.