ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, January 7, 1996 TAG: 9601090013
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LESLIE TAYLOR STAFF WRITER
IS HER ADOPTIVE MOTHER her birth mother? Is her birth mother alive? Did she pass diabetes on to her children from her birth parents?
Judy Patterson's birthday on the last day of April passes just like any other day of the year.
But each year, she can't help but wonder who she really is, who gave birth to her on April 30, 1940.
Patterson, who lives in Pico Rivera, Calif., was adopted by a Roanoke woman 55 years ago. For the past 12 years, Patterson has searched for her birth mother.
Armed with her adoptive mother's name - Virginia Brooks Parker - and a name she believes is that of her birth mother, she has had no success.
"Unless you're in it, you just don't understand how frustrating it is that you can't find out who you are, what, where," Patterson, a restaurant hostess, said in a telephone interview. "I'd like to go to Virginia and start digging. But I just can't afford to do all that."
Patterson spent most of her youth in Baltimore. She said she always thought Baltimore was her birthplace.
In 1969, she discovered otherwise - on a guess. She'd applied to a Maryland agency for her birth certificate so she could get a passport and accompany her husband to Venezuela.
Maryland had no record of her birth.
Patterson remembered that her adoptive mother was from Roanoke. She contacted the Bureau of Vital Records and Health Statistics in Richmond.
Patterson gave her maiden name - Judy Mae Parker - and waited. Six weeks later, she received a certificate of birth. It had her name, birthdate, birth city and state, the date her birth was recorded and certificate number.
It gave no information about her birth parents. The missing information only piqued her curiosity. But she dismissed the notion of tracking them down - until 1984.
Patterson discovered she was a diabetes carrier. Two of her five children had developed the disease.
"I wanted my family's medical history," she said. "If I had two kids with diabetes, who knows what else was in my family? When I go to the doctor, I say 'Test me for everything, because I don't know where I came from.'''
Patterson had a lawyer in California contact one in Roanoke. The Roanoke lawyer told her the birth records were sealed and that nothing about her birth parents could be released.
For 12 years, Patterson "turned off" her search.
About three months ago, Patterson again contacted Virginia's vital records division after a friend mistakenly told her that a new federal law required that all adoption records be unsealed. (There is no such law.) She gave the name of her adoptive mother and the supposed name of her birth mother.
Two weeks ago, she received a "Certification of Vital Record" that wasn't much different from the certificate of birth she'd received in 1969 - with one exception.
There was a name listed under "Maiden Name of Mother," but the name was the married name of her adoptive mother.
"I can't figure out what's going on," she said. "I'd like to shake them all up and make people aware that if they are going to give up a baby, these are the future consequences."
Patterson said she cannot turn to her adoptive mother for help. She hasn't had any contact with her for decades. She hasn't been able to find out if her adoptive mother is living and, if so, where.
"I've contacted all of these agencies, and none of them can help me because I don't have the name" of the birth mother, Patterson said. "You can buy every book in the world on how to find somebody. The first page will say you need a name."
Virginia agencies will not confirm whether the name Patterson believes is that of her birth mother is correct.
Patterson has a theory: that her birth mother went into the hospital under the name of her adoptive mother.
Others have their own theories.
Anne Carpenter, executive director of ABC Adoption Services Inc. in Roanoke, said it appears Patterson's adoption was private. She wondered if Patterson's adoption was legal.
Jane Nast, legislative director for the American Adoption Congress, said Patterson's case sounded unusual. Could Patterson's mother actually be her birth mother? Nast asked. Could she have had the baby, then have gone back and adopted her?
"Stranger things have happened," said Nast, of New Jersey. "She'll never get her original birth certificate unless a law gets passed."
Adoption laws vary from state to state. Records are sealed officially in all but two states - Alaska and Kansas. Tennessee passed legislation last year that relaxed its adoption law.
In Virginia, no identifying information of birth parents can be disclosed unless the Department of Social Services commissioner finds good cause or a court orders it.
An adopted person has the right to file an application of disclosure with the department. Patterson has not done so.
"If we are able to locate the birth parents and they [agree] to having their identity revealed, we say there is good cause," said Brenda Kerr, supervisor of the state Adoption Reporting Unit, a division of the social services department. The department commissioner then will designate a person or agency to locate the birth parents or family members.
"If we can't find the birth parent, or if they refuse to be identified, we will deny the application," Kerr said.
The adopted person can go a step further and file for a court order to disclose the information. A judge can enter an order releasing the information if good cause is shown.
Many states have a "good cause" clause, meaning a compelling need for the identifying information has been shown.
But "there aren't too many judges that give people information," Nast said. "Somehow we've got to get the word out that the world isn't going to come to an end if kids get their birth certificates."
The American Adoption Congress, based in Washington, D.C., has been a big proponent of open adoption records.
"Adoptees feel disempowered," said Betty Jean Lifton, the organization's communications director and the author of several books about adoption. "They don't have human rights or constitutional rights to what everybody else has."
Others support closed records. The National Council for Adoption, also in Washington, has lobbied against opening adoption records. The organization instead supports a "mutual consent registry" where both the birth and adoptive parents waive their right to privacy.
Patterson said she has considered contacting "Unsolved Mysteries," a television show that features all kinds of mysteries - missing persons, unsolved crimes and occult phenomena.
"This is like a good mystery," she said.
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