That NOSE!

I briskly walked from the post office back to my car, firmly yet gently grasping the envelope as though it were fragile, yet not risking the chance that anything would remove it from my fingers. I slid in behind the wheel and nervously sat. So many of my fellow adoptees had been posting on our private Facebook page about waiting to open their documents in the presence of spouses, or family members.  Chicago and my best friend were 10 hours away. Part of me knew it would be nice to share this moment, and yet part of me could not stand to wait one more minute.  I slid my finger under the flap and began to tear.  I unfolded the paper, and my eyes scanned until I saw it...the most important sequence of letters on the whole page. J-U-D-Y  C-A-R-O-L  M-O-F-F-I-T. I said it out loud, and then I stared at it in silence. This woman gave me life. I began to take in the other information on the page. No father's name was listed. She was 22, and was born herself in Wisconsin. I was 7lbs and 4oz, and the name field was blank, except for Moffit.  In true Bernie style, the thought that occurred to me was that I was simply "Little Miss Moffit".
Back at the office, I tried to keep my mind on my work, but found it increasingly difficult. That night as soon as I arrived home, I was online. The very first thing I searched was her name, and the very first thing that came up was a link to Ancestry.com.

My heart sank to read that she had passed away. I was devastated.
I did not know a thing about maneuvering the Ancestry website, so for your entertainment, I will admit that when I saw her parents' names listed as "Private", I thought to myself that they both must have been in the Army, and that must have been the connection to my dad, who was also Army. I am now much wiser and understand that private only means that the person who holds the information on any given family tree has set their security to private, as opposed to public.
I continued to follow links, and very soon ended up perusing the pages of a yearbook. Albert Lea High School, in MN. I found some pictures for a Judy Moffit, and upon laying my eyes on those images, there was no question...no doubt in my mind. I clicked away, taking screenshots, staring, crying. It is a very difficult thing to explain sufficiently what it is like to see resemblance, when previously any hints of likeness to family were elusive. She was in band and chorus, (musical, like me) and sat as president of the school's Red Cross. One picture made me chuckle. It was a band picture and she was in a strapless dress. I was amazed and thrilled to see my shoulders!

I could not stop looking.  I found a picture of myself in a pose similar to hers and posted us side by side. All I kept thinking was WOW...

The next day, I posted the above photo on Facebook, and had it on my phone to show to some coworkers, and the comment was consistently the same...that NOSE!! You have her nose! (and her mouth...and her dimples...sigh...)