"Every child without a family deserves to have one."

“Every child without a family deserves to have one.” This is one of the mottos used by the Moose Lodge. Whether a child was voluntarily given up or taken from their family, every child deserves to know their family. Most families lose a member at one point. Often it is a child given up for adoption. Sometimes it is a child lost in a messy divorce. And sometimes it is a child taken by the courts and placed in foster care. My family did not have just one lost family member, we had six. In the coming weeks and months I will tell you the stories of how they were lost and how they were found. These stories are not unlike many of the stories that are out there. A cousin that was kidnapped by his mother’s friend, a cousin placed into a mental institution as a child, an older sister not seen since 1968, a father missing for 37 years, a daughter missing for 35 years and an uncle that no one knew about until 53 years later. I found four of them within a three week period this last summer. I spent less than $20 in the process of locating these individuals. Some of them were joyfully reunited and some never wanted to be found. My wife recently asked me, “How do you know they want to be found?” My response was, “How do I know they don’t.” One must consider that fact that these individuals may have been raised in foster care or by relative. They may not know that they have family. At the beginning of this post I mentioned that every child needs a family. Even if it has been 30 years, there is always that child deep inside that wants to know where they come from. On Monday I will tell you how to get started on your journey.