Son, mom reunited after 32 years

TheSpec.com - News - Son, mom reunited after 32 yearshttp://www.thespec.com/printArticle/478664Page 1 of 212/8/2008http://www.thespec.com/News/article/478664Son, mom reunited after 32 yearsJOAN WALTERSThe Hamilton Spectator(Dec 8, 2008)Paul Zadvorny always imagined his birth mother with red hair,blue eyes and smile like his own.For years, he pored over school yearbooks and adoptionregistries, hoping for a lead on the 16-year-old high schoolstudent who gave birth to him in Hamilton in 1976.He became a teacher, married and became the father of triplets in2005.The three boys - Ace, Owen, and Tristan - came to publicattention as the world's only known identical triplets born withcleft lips, all fixed now after surgeries.Sheryl Nadler, the Hamilton SpectatorAlways loved and supported by his adoptive family, Zadvorny nevertheless wanted more information about his birth motCatholic Children's Aid told him only that his teen mother named him Christopher Paul "D," and came from an upper-midScottish heritage.Zadvorny registered endlessly on websites, tapped into adoption disclosure systems as they became available and almosThen this summer, after he wrote an opinion piece in The Spectator about his search, things broke.One of his birth relatives found a reference to his birth name online and tipped his birth mother. Details in Zadvorny's arLesley Brownfield - strawberry-blonde, blue-eyed and with a smile like her son's - remembers being in shock, but thinkinhim fast."He had searched for so long, and I was so sad that we had never connected," she said this weekend in the Zadvorny hoher red-headed grandsons.She recalls sitting at her computer in Calgary, considering what to say. "It was the most important e-mail I was ever goiResponses to Zadvorny's article resulted in dozens of messages, most just wishing him well. He was discouraged -- nonewas getting really helped."I started putting them into my junk mail," he says. "I actually put Lesley's in junk mail, then thought I'd better read it,The note stopped him cold, made him believe this might be the one.

TheSpec.com - News - Son, mom reunited after 32 yearshttp://www.thespec.com/printArticle/478664Page 2 of 212/8/2008"I think my mom just e-mailed me," he recalls telling his wife, Jenn Seager.But he had to be sure.Brownfield says she got an e-mail back, something like: "You'd better not be fooling with my emotions, because this is sBrownfield, who had told her husband, Dan, and kids about the birth, also wanted to be certain. Her daughters, ElizabetEmily, 16, went on the Internet looking for a photo of Zadvorny."By the next day, Emily had found him on Myspace. We found a soccer team photo," Brownfield says. "Then we saw picton the beach. Three redheads. I knew this was it."In short order, Zadvorny was in Calgary, visiting with members of his natural family that includes Brownfield, her sisterZadvorny's three half-sisters."What was so amazing about going to Calgary was that I didn't have to look for anything we had in common. It was so ssimilar quirks and habits," he says.Annie Steeves, Brownfield's sister, and the relative who found the link, says the family had often said how "we would opBrownfield's birth son ever came looking.Brownfield came from Kitchener to have her baby at a Hamilton home for unwed mothers.Through the years, Steeves said, the family respected Brownfield's wish not to intrude on her birth son's life.Steeves, visiting from Halifax, says she continued periodic searches. The day she found Zadvorny, she'd just shut the codiscouraged. "Then something in my soul said, 'Don't stop,'" she says. "So I went back, and I thought: 'Oh my God, I foBrownfield says she is still somewhat in shock and grateful for the reunion, and the chance to meet her grandsons. She'sadoptive parents and thinks they are "wonderful, wonderful people."jwalters@thespec.com905-526-3302http://www.thespec.com/News/article/478664© Copyright 2007 Metroland Media Group Ltd. All rights reserved. Thereproduction, modification, distribution, transmission or republicationof any material from www.thespec.com is strictly prohibited withoutthe prior written permission of Metroland Media Group Ltd.