My name is Ed, and my wife, Kathy and I have been married for 16 years. And, we have a granddaughter. To understand how we could have a granddaughter old enough to get married, we have to go back in time to 1965.

I was a 20- year old guy working for the CIA in Washington, D.C., hoping for a long and successful career in the intelligence field, and I had applied for an overseas assignment. In the spring of 1965, I met a young lady from WI. named Penny, who came to work in the office I worked in. We began dating and soon became intimate. In early 1966, she informed me that she was pregnant. My parents said, "Get married right away!" My clergyman said, "Don't make another mistake by getting married just for the sake of the child." Penny told her boss, who arranged for her to get counseling at our headquarters in Langley, VA. I met with him, since he was my boss too, and I told him I was responsible for her predicament. He arranged for me to go to Langley also. We each met separately with a counselor and discussed our problem. My counselor left the room, came back ten minutes later, asked some questions, and then he left the room again. When she returned, she said, "This is what we are going to do!" She then outlined a plan: (1) Penny would be transferred to the west coast on a special assignment. (2) Our co-workers would be told, if they should ask, that Penny had wanted some field experience, and this opening had come up and needed to be filled quickly.( 3) When she was due, the agency would take care of everything, and she would give the child up for adoption. (4) I would be required to pay her expenses while on maternity leave. (5) I was not to contact her in any way, nor was she to contact me. (6) My application for overseas assignment would be put on hold for a period of one year.

In August, I received notification of the amount of money I was expected to provide. I re-financed my car and forwarded the money to the counselor. On September 28, 1966, Penny delivered a baby girl, whom she named Frances. I received my overseas assignment and spent the next three years in Vietnam. I only saw Penny once after that, in Langley, and we didn't speak to each other. I left the Agency in 1972.

Fast forward now to 1984. I'd been married for 12 years and had two sons. My marriage wasn't going very well, and we separated. I decided to start looking for my daughter, since she would be turning 18 in September. A friend of mine told me about ALMA, and I sent for information and joined. Following their advice, I tried contacting old friends, searching telephone books, etc. trying to locate Penny. I located several friends, but none of them knew where Penny was. I had no idea what happened to her or our child. Did she decide to keep her instead of giving her up? If so, what did she tell her about her father? (Killed in the war, abandoned them both, etc.) Had the baby been adopted or passed through foster homes? Had she died in infancy? Did she know she was adopted? All these things kept going through my mind. I was getting nowhere. Finally I decided to move on, hoping that some day one of them would look for me.

In 1989 I met my wife, Kathy, while working a part time job. We were married in 1991. She had a daughter from her previous marriage. I told her I also had a daughter from a previous relationship that I had never met.

Fast forward again, this time to June 14, 2006. I was sitting at my computer, checking my e-mails when Kathy came in with the telephone and said, "I think you need to take this call". The lady on the phone introduced herself as "Marie," from "ALMA." My first thought was that my membership had expired, or they were looking for a donation. What followed, however, was a series of questions about myself, Penny and our child. Finally, Marie said, "I think we have a match!" She then told me that while comparing information from other sources, they had come upon a listing that matched my information. A lady in Oregon, using the name ,Michele, had listed her birth name as Frances, and her DOB as September 28, 1966. Marie had spoken to her to confirm this information before calling me. She then told me that Michele had been adopted when only a few months old, had always known she was adopted, and had been encouraged by her adoptive parents, Bud and Carolyn, in her search. She was divorced and had two children, an 18 year- old daughter and a 17- year old son. Her adoptive mother had died in 2004.

Early the next morning I received an e-mail from Michele that started out "This may sound strange, but it appears that I am you daughter!" Well, over the next week we exchanged quite a few e-mails with questions about family, siblings, health issues and pictures of her and the children, some of her growing up. I e-mailed pictures of myself and Kathy, our boys our other daughter and the grand kids. She said she would call me on Father's Day. Needless to say I was sitting right next to the phone. We talked for about 30 minutes, during which time I agreed to try and locate Penny for her. This time it was much easier, thanks to the Internet.

Marie had given me some clues as to where to start, and she had e-mailed some information ALMA had obtained. I mailed letters to every address I could find. I ended up signing up on a site called "publicrecordsnow.com" and was able to obtain Penny's current address. I found that she was living less than 100 mile away in California, and she had been in that general area for over 20 years. One morning a couple of weeks later Penny called me. I asked her if she knew why I was trying to get in touch with her and she said "our daughter." I told her everything I had learned about Michele, and I put the two of them in touch with each other. In mid-August, Kathy and I drove to meet her and our grandchildren. We also met her adoptive father. We spent the weekend visiting and getting to know each other better. In September I met her and her daughter, Jennifer, and we drove them to our place for the weekend. There she got to meet her siblings.

A couple of weeks later Michele and Jennifer came back to Sacramento. This time it was to meet Penny . In April of this year, Michele and Jennifer flew to the north east, where Kathy and I, and Kathy's mother, who we are caring for, were visiting my parents for their 65th anniversary. After 40 years, my family finally got to meet my daughter, and she got to meet her grandparents, uncle and aunts.

That now brings us to the present. We received an invitation to Jennifer's wedding. On November 16, she was married in a nice ceremony in Oregon. Kathy and I drove up for the wedding. Penny was there, too. We had a wonderful time, and Penny and I talked for the first time in over 40 years. For Michele, it was the first time ever that she had both her birth parents in the same room with her.

If there is one thing I could say to anyone who is out there searching for their loved ones, don’t put off the search - start it now and actively pursue it.

Submitted for Publication by Birth Father, Ed, 12/10/2007!