Sisters Reunite in Ohio

“Both sisters were raised in Columbus, but by separate families. They were put up for adoption young, their birth family mostly a mystery to them. McDonald grew up in a foster family with other siblings, while Barnett was raised as an only child. Barnett had learned that she had two other siblings, but nothing more.

That’s because, until recently, state law blocked the sisters and 400,000 others adopted in Ohio from uncovering records about their pasts. For adoptions finalized between Jan. 1, 1964, and

Sept. 18, 1996, those records were sealed. It took advocates years to persuade the state to unseal the records but, in March, it happened.

Barnett was featured in a front-page Dispatch story on March 21 as one of hundreds who had visited the Ohio Department of Health Vital Statistics Office to request a packet of information about her birth. When Barnett’s came last week, she learned her mother’s name and, through Internet sleuthing, discovered a sister named Tina McDonald.

At first, McDonald thought it was a joke when she got a call from someone claiming to be her sister. But by the end of the week, they were swapping digital photos of their kids and exchanging text messages by the dozen.

It was through those texts that McDonald learned her sister was at the birthday dinner last night at the J. Alexander’s at Easton Town Center.

McDonald, who works at the Fort Knox Army base in Kentucky, was coming to town anyway for an Easter visit to the family that raised her. But driving somewhere between her home in central Kentucky and the Ohio River, McDonald started to plot the surprise visit.

Once she learned about the dinner, McDonald called J. Alexander’s to get the staff in on it. And so, after the plates were hauled away, the manager approached the table to deliver a birthday wish. Behind her was McDonald, holding a slice of cake for the birthday girl but looking at her sister.

Barnett searched those eyes, and then it clicked. She recognized the woman from family photos they had swapped.

“I’m almost speechless,” she said.

This is just the start, though. Barnett also discovered last week that she has a brother who was born in 1976. And she’s looking for her mother, who had a developmental disability that the state decided made her unfit to raise children. Barnett found an address for her, but the home is vacant.

Mostly, the sisters want their mother to know they’re doing fine, and that neither holds any grudges. Both think she is alive and in Columbus.”

“Tina McDonald –– the 46-year-old sister whose identity Barnett discovered only last week –– was driving from Kentucky, intent on surprising her little sister.

“Oh my gosh,” Barnett repeated as McDonald slid into the restaurant booth to hug her sister for the first time. “I think you are actually sneakier than I am.”

In that restaurant booth, Barnett clasped her hands around her sister’s back, smiling with her eyes squeezed shut. She let go only to let her 8-year-old daughter share a hug with her new aunt. The others around the table snapped photos and talked about how crazy this all is.

And then, after another hug, Barnett found the words she was looking for.

“I actually have a sister.”

Release of adoption records reunites sisters[The Columbus Dispatch 4/5/15 by Collin Binkley]

REFORM Puzzle Piece