Part 1
The day I found my biological father.
Our prayers are powerful. So much more than I think we realize. I am constantly amazed at how extravagantly God answers us, especially when we aren’t expecting it. I want to share a story with you about how He answered one of my prayers, which was completely unexpected.
The day I found my biological father.
I grew up without my biological father. He and my mom split up before I turned two. He dabbled in drugs, drank a lot, and was abusive. I remember growing up and being so curious about him, who he was, where he lived, what he did for work, if he had another family, etc. I always wondered if he wondered about me too. Growing up I always prayed that someday I would get to meet him and give him a hug. God actually answered that prayer with a “yes” one day when I was 25 years old and working in a law office. Here’s what happened…
The day I began the process of finding my biological dad was just like any other ordinary day, except that day I felt an extraordinary amount of confidence. At the time, I was working at a law firm answering phones and had been there for about a year. Every week, a private investigator would come into the office for meetings as he worked on various cases with different attorneys. The thought had frequently crossed my mind to ask him if he could do a national search to find my dad, but I never could quite conjure up the confidence to ask, until that particular day. My conversation with the investigator went a little like this:
Me: (Nervous, shaking and shy, but feeling more confident than usual!) “Excuse me, do you do national searches?” (Looking back, I can’t believe I asked him that! He’s a private investigator for heaven’s sake!)
PI: (Laughing out loud) “Why yes! Why do you ask?” (With a mischievous smile) “Are you looking for an ex-boyfriend or something?!”
Me: “Hahaha. No, I actually wanted to start looking for my dad.”
PI: (His face all of a sudden got very serious and he put all laughing and joking aside, which made me even more nervous). “Wow, I love these stories. Yes. I do national searches and I would love to find him for you, free of charge. This one’s on me.” (I think the first phase of finding someone could cost upwards of $1,000, which covers time, effort, database costs, etc., so the fact that he wasn’t going to charge me was a miracle in itself.)
We talked a little more about giving him the limited information I had that could possibly be helpful in locating him, as well as the things to be mindful of if we did, in fact, find him or learn that he was deceased. Butterflies descended and remained in my stomach throughout the entirety of this process. Not even a week went by when I found a message sitting on my desk one late afternoon from the PI, letting me know that he had found my dad and asked for me to give him a call back. Not only had he found him, but he had also found other family members as well. With the information I held in my hand, it felt like my life had suddenly changed, forever.
Click here to continue reading with Part 2.
Featured Image by Luca Bravo
[…] (You can access Part 1 here) […]