God had a hand in this reunion

by Mary Coblentz
For a decade, Kristin Naomi Ross searched for the woman who gave her up for adoption at birth nearly 29 years ago. She didn’t have any success, but occasionally kept trying. She even drove to San Diego a couple of times to look for information.
The adoption took place in California which has closed adoptions. How it was supposed to work is when Kristin turned 18, she could send contact information and, if the birth mother had left contact information, the two could be reunited.
However, there was a “disconnect” with the information. The agency information was lacking, and it seemed to be a dead end. Then, after watching “Troy the Locator: on television, Kristin wrote him a letter. After he read Kristin’s letter to Troy, Kristin’s husband, Dave Ross, realized how important finding her birth mother was to Kristin.
Dave began using his detective skills, and it was he who finally found Kristin’s birth mother. The key was the birth mother’s birth date which had accidentally been left on a document obtained by the Rosses.
The first search for a Maria with that birth date was in California, and there were 150 Marias with that birth date in the state. Then, having heard Maria may have moved to Alaska, Dave did a search in Alaska and found just one Maria with that birth date. He made a phone call, and when Maria returned his call, he knew he had found who they were looking for.
Tuesday, December 9, Kristin and Maria met again for the first time in almost three decades when Maria arrived in Cedar Rapids from Alaska.
Maria was just 17 years old when she gave Kristin up for adoption. The adoption agency gave her “as much control” as she wanted over the adoption, and when Kristin arrived earlier than expected, Maria had narrowed her choice to two families.
She was told in the hospital she had to make a choice. She demanded another day. “I had to pray about it,” she said.
Curt and Kathy Burton were not able to have children, so they turned to adoption. After four years working with adoption agencies and several potential adoptions falling through, Kathy was about to give up.
They had written in the adoption papers about their Christian faith, and Kathy was advised to consider leaving that information out in case that counted against them with potential birth mothers. But Curt said, “That’s who we are,” and they left it in. It turns out, that information helped Maria make her final choice.
Then, on Kathy’s birthday, they got a call to tell them they had a little girl. Maria had stayed up all night with her baby and had her baptized, giving her the name Naomi. She requested that the birth family keep it as the baby’s middle name.
When the Burtons named their new daughter, the first name was easy - they liked Christian but wanted something different - Kristin. But they couldn’t decide on a middle name. That’s when they were told about Maria’s request to use Naomi as a middle name.
They decided it was perfect. As it turned out, the name was the single piece of information that convinced Maria and Dave they were talking about the same person, Kristin Naomi Ross. Maria said, “He said, ‘My wife’s middle name is Naomi,’ and I knew.”
When Dave called Kristen to tell her he had found her birth mother, Kristen was in Oregon visiting her parents. “It was three days before I could form a coherent sentence,” Kristin said. When she did call her birth mother, they talked three to four hours.
One of the first questions Kristin asked Maria was at the request of Kathy, Kristin’s mother. It was, “Do you smell everything?” Kristin is very in tune with her olfactory sense and, it turns out, so is her birth mother.
The Burtons raised Kristin with the knowledge that she was adopted and always encouraged her to find her birth mother. Still, Kristin said, “I was worried about what my parents would really feel.”
Her mother said, “Nothing can take away the bond we share. I cannot wait for you (and Maria) to get close.”
Her father, a man of few words, said, “Well, our family just got a lot bigger.”
Maria is married to Joe Works and they have two sons, Joseph, 18, and Chris, 15. Maria is one of 11 children (half-brothers and half-sisters) who live primarily in Washington, Oregon, and California.
Kristin, in addition to her new half-brothers in Alaska, has a brother, Casey, who is also adopted; he lives in Arizona and has several children.
Maria said, “My family is just ecstatic. And my whole town is going crazy.” The Works live in Soldotna, Alaska, a town of about 4,000 people.
Just a couple of weeks before Dave called Maria, she had been looking for the information about the adoption agency, ready to search once again for her daughter. She, too, had looked without success, off and on, for years.
Maria said, “This was the perfect time in my life to find Kristin. I looked before, but I wasn’t ready.”
Kristin also feels that now is the perfect time for her to meet her birth mother.
And she is so grateful to her for making “the most selfless decision she could have made. The ultimate sacrifice. It blows my mind. I could have never ever been born. Maria could have kept me. But she couldn’t have picked two better people to be my parents.”
Maria is looking forward to meeting Kristin’s parents to thank them for taking such good care of Kristin when she was not able to.
Kristin said that her parents are also so thankful that Maria made the choice to let them adopt Kristin.
“It’s a triangle of gratitude,” Kristen said.
Maria said, “The timing was perfect. It’s so obvious to both of us that God had a hand in this.”
Maria left for Alaska Sunday. The visit was short, but both Kristin and Maria look forward to many future visits. Next time, Kristin may get to meet her new brothers.
Maria said, “When Dave called, it was the best phone call ever in my life.”
Although she didn’t make the call herself, it was one of the best in Kristin’s life as well.