Baby

Against All Odds

The hospital I was born in was located 2 states away from the orphanage so it took me about three days to finally get there with all the stops to eat, potty, or sleep. I was nervous about this trips outcome...but the realist in me knew I was blowing through my money pretty quick. And with no real game plan here I was worried I'd get stranded in the middle of nowhere where I know no one.

Or worse, robbed, or killed at some random gas station.

With every mile away from home I grew more and more weary. But as I finally entered Franklin County a sense of relief washed through me.

I stopped to gas up my tank one final time before making my way over to the hospital.

"20 on pump 3 please." I said as I handed the woman my card.

She swiped it and smiled at me. "Silver and gold...some say it's good luck."

"Excuse me?' I asked.

She handed my card back and explained. "Your jewelry...some people say that when  you wear both silver and gold jewelry at the same time it's suppose to bring you good luck."

"Oh..." I smiled in return. "Well I hope so...Have a good day." I said as I took the receipt and left to fill up the car.

After getting the gas I took off and went straight to the hospital, of course to park there you had to pay at least $5...and given that my car was older it was still really good on gas and only took me $80 the whole way...I would've spent even more money had I stayed at a motel or something, but I braved it and took my chances at a truck stop both nights. But I knew I'd have to find a cheap motel to call home for the time being if I found my mom here.

I parked my car and collected my parking garage slip, I made my way inside and found a receptionist desk.

"How may I help you?"

"Yes, Hi...uh, I don't really know where to go exactly, but I was looking to possibly inquire about hospital records on births?"

She looked at me, "yes... medical records is on the third floor, they should be able to help you, if not maybe they can point you in the right direction."

I thanked her and she told me where the elevators were.

Once on the third floor they were a little more helpful after I had essential told them the same thing.

"Do you know the patients name?"

"Uh, Well my name is Baby Parsons, and I think my birth Mother's name is Diana Giles...I was adopted." I lied, "But I'm trying to locate my birth mother."

"Well hun I'll help you as best we can but to be honest with you we're working against all odds here...you see back in the 80's and early 90's our hospital was the main prenatal unit for the surrounding four counties...it wasn't until the late 90's that the other counties started getting more modern equipment and stopped using our facilities as much, so even if we can locate your files or your mother's files...there's really no telling where she is now."

I nodded my understanding.

"But let's take a look at it now, and see if we can't find anything." She offered.

I stood there for a while before she finally spoke up again.

"Okay...so I did find somethings, however...due to certain hospital guidelines I can not give out another patients information without their consent...now if you'd like we can try and call the number listed on these forms and see if possibly it is still a working number for that person and perhaps they will give their consent?"

"Would you mind?" I asked, "I mean at this point I'm willing to try anything."

"No problem, hang tight Hun."