After 46 years, woman reunited with birth mother
WINSTON, Ore. (AP) — Barbara Madlock was just 15 years old on the snowy November day in 1965 when she was driven from Drain to Cottage Grove to give birth to a baby girl her mother would not allow her to keep.
"I held her for about two seconds before the nurse figured out I wasn't supposed to see her," Madlock said.
And then her baby was gone.
Forty six years passed and Madlock, 62, never saw her daughter again, until Sunday.
On Sunday afternoon that long-lost daughter, Andrea Breaux, arrived at Madlock's home in Winston, stepped out of a silver Jeep, reached down and hugged her 4-foot-7-inch birth mother.
"Hello mother," she said. "You're kind of short," she joked, though she is just 5 feet 2 inches herself.
Both had been looking for the other for decades. But since adoption records were closed as a rule in the 1960s, it wasn't an easy task. The long search ended Sunday when the two met for the first time.
Breaux, of Weed, Calif., said she had been searching for her mother since she was 18. Breaux grew up with a family in Corvallis, but always wondered where her birth mother was. When you're adopted, she said, you dream of the day you'll find your mom the way other girls dream of the day they'll find their prince.
Twelve years ago, she found her birth certificate. She learned that her mother was named Barbara Spencer and that she had lived in Drain.
"I went to Drain High School, saw her picture in the yearbook and blew it up to an 8-by-10. I held onto it. I've had her in my hallway for 12 years," Breaux said.
About 11 days ago, she found a Spencer, William Spencer, in Drain in the white pages. She was so nervous about a possible connection to her mother that she asked her 21-year-old daughter, Bethany Miller of Clarksville, Tenn., to call the man. He turned out to be her mother's brother. He gave them Madlock's number.
On New Year's Day, Breaux spoke to her mother for the first time.
"It's been a good start to the new year," Madlock said.
"She's been on cloud nine," said Barbara's husband, Wayne Madlock, 75. "She hasn't stopped smiling."
"I think she called everybody in the family that night," said Barbara Madlock's sister, Carol Roy, 68, of Sweet Home, who was there to greet Breaux when she arrived. "The whole family's been looking for so long. I'm very excited the family got in touch with her, and she got in touch with us."
Breaux said that every time she got close to finding her mother in the past, she got scared and backed off. There's always doubt, a fear that your birth mother might not have wanted you. Still, for the most part, she believed her mother didn't want to give her up.
"Back in 1965, that's the way it was," she said. "I've known all my life in my heart it wasn't her (decision)."
The funny thing is, she's come within a few miles of her mother nearly every week for years. Her husband, Nathan Breaux, is a truck driver, and she's often been with him when he routinely stops at Love's truck stop at the Interstate 5 exit to Winston.
Breaux brought her husband with her Sunday, along with her youngest daughter, Jonnie Ehmke, 13, and a granddaughter, Fionna Angeles, 3, who is Miller's daughter. Barbara Madlock said she is eager to meet Miller in person in February and hopes to have a family reunion in March.
Also there Sunday to greet Breaux were Barbara Madlock's brother, Robert Spencer, 60, of Sweet Home, and Wayne Madlock's niece, Elaine Duarte, 52, of Roseburg.
Barbara Madlock said she never forgave her mother for taking her baby from her.
"I loved my mom, but I couldn't forgive her," she said. Her mother died in 2009. Barbara Madlock said she believes her mother would have been happy about the reunion.
She also said she wishes she had kept her daughter in the first place.
"Most definitely I would have had it harder," she said. "I think it would have been worth it, because you always have a hole in your heart. You're never fulfilled."
Barbara Madlock had another daughter when she was 13, but hasn't found her yet.
"There's still a piece that's missing, my other daughter, but this has helped a lot," she said.
Wayne Madlock said he was always optimistic his wife, who raised his three children from a previous marriage, would find her only two biological daughters.
"I kept telling her to just hang in there. One of these days one of those girls is gonna come knocking on our door," he said.
Barbara Madlock said the reunion proves that miracles do happen.
"I just want the whole world to know if you're searching for somebody, don't give up," she said.
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Information from: The News-Review, http://www.nrtoday.com
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press
