Minnesota Adoptee Searches for Birthparents
“A Minnesota woman has become the latest adoptee to take her search for her birth parents to social media.
Kim Lees has been searching for her birth mother for more than 10 years. On Wednesday, Lees took her search to Facebook, where at least two other adoptees in search of their birth parents have posted messages they hope will go viral and help in their search.
‘My name is Kim. My birth date is 5-21-1970. I was born at Fairview Hospital in Minneapolis, MN,’ Lees Facebook post reads. ‘I am searching for my birth mother. PLEASE share this post. Any information can be sent to kimssearch521@gmail.com. Thank you!’
So far, Lees’ post has been shared 2,400 times.
Less says she was inspired by a recent mother-daughter reunion, presumably referring to Katheryn Deprill, the 27-year-old Pennsylvania who posted a similar message on Facebook in hopes of tracking down her birth mother.
Deprill’s adoption story is slightly more memorable than most – she was referred to as the ‘Burger King Baby’ in local media accounts after her birth mother left the newborn Deprill wrapped in a shirt crying on the floor of a Burger King bathroom in 1986.
Deprill began her quest March 2 by posting on her Facebook page a photo in which she held up a sign that said: ‘Looking for my birth mother. … She abandoned me in the Burger King bathroom only hours old, Allentown PA. Please help me find her by sharing my post.’
The photo was shared more than 30,000 times by Facebook users around the world, and Deprill’s story landed in numerous media outlets.”
”
Deprill inspired a man – also from Pennsylvania – to use social media to try and find his birth mother.
David Volk – who was left in a New Jersey McDonald’s sink when he was just hours old – launched a search for his birth mother after being inspired by the success of the ‘Burger King baby.’
Volk, from Pen Argyl, Pennsylvania, didn’t even try looking for his mother because he had no information about her – but after Deprill posted an image on Facebook explaining that she’d been dumped in a Burger King 27 years ago, it took her just three weeks to find her mother.
Inspired, Volk decided to do the same, and has now shared an image on his Facebook profile showing him holding a sign reading: ‘Please help me! I am looking for my birth mother.’
‘I just never thought there was any hope,’ he told the Star-Ledger. ‘Being abandoned in a McDonald’s, no records. After seeing [Deprill’s] story, and she found her mom so quickly, that’s what gave me the inspiration to do mine.’
Volk still had his umbilical cord attached when a manager found him wrapped in a brown plastic bag in the sink of the women’s restroom in a McDonald’s in Newark, New Jersey in December 1977.
He was given the name ‘Christopher McDonald’ because of where he was found, but his name was legally changed when he was adopted a year later, records show.
Volk, who is now 36 and married, said he developed a close bond with his family and was devastated by the loss of his adoptive mother two years ago.
He said he isn’t angry with his birth mother but simply wishes to meet her and get to know her.
Volk’s search is yet to turn up his birth mother.
The night before she posted her photo on Facebook, Lees wrote a message to friends explaining how she was trying to find her birth mother.
‘I will be posting a picture in the morning that I would be grateful if you would share. I am adopted and have tried several avenues over the last 10+ years to locate my birth mother and/or information leading to her,’ she wrote in her explanation.
‘I was recently inspired by a story of a mother/daughter reunion made possible via social media, so I figured it is worth a shot. Honestly, I myself gloss over many of these posted “please share” pictures, but I am hoping you all would take a minute to seek it out and share. It is my birthday today, and this would truly be the best gift I could receive. I hold no preconceived notions of how this will turn out- good, bad, or no response at all, I will take it as it comes. Thank you in advance!'”
The ‘Burger King Baby’ effect: Adopted children turn to Facebook to help find their birth families hoping for success of woman who found her mother in just three weeks[Daily Mail 5/24/14]
REFORM Puzzle Piece
Recent Comments