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Full Circle

For Elana Freedman, finding her birth mom completes a lifelong dream.

Eli Natinsky | Special to the Jewish News

indeed her biological mother,
Elana sent her a message in
February of last year explain-
ing she was her biological
daughter. She asked if she was
interested in forming a bond
or providing medical informa-
tion — family medical history
is another reason adopted chil-
dren seek out their birth par-
ents. However, Elana and Evie
weren’t Facebook friends, so
Elana’s email went to Evie’s sec-
ondary message folder rather
than her primary one.
Two months passed and
Elana hadn’t heard back, so
she sent Evie a friend request.
Evie saw that Elana was origi-
nally from the same region —
Elana moved with her family
from the Philadelphia area to
Metropolitan Detroit in 2003
— and, intrigued by the local
connection, she added Elana to
her network.
At that point, Elana’s mes-
sage from two months earlier
came through. When Evie read Elana’s
email, tears flowed. Evie had also thought
about Elana during the years. There were
even times when she would observe young
women in public and wonder if one of
them was the little girl she gave up for
adoption years before.
“She was in awe,” Elana said. “She was
in so much shock and so much relief that
I was looking for her because she was also
looking for me. She wanted to know where
I was and that I was OK.”
Evie had seen similar family reunion
stories on TV shows such as The Ellen
Degeneres Show, but she didn’t think it
would happen to her. Yet, Evie did have a
sense that Elana might seek her out one
day, and that was one of the reasons she
listed her maiden name rather than her
married name — she’s now divorced — on
Facebook.
“Thank goodness for social media,” Evie
said. “If it wasn’t for Facebook, I never
would have found her.”

Sean Cook

I

’m thankful I got to meet and I
got to know my birth mother;
it’s always been a dream of
mine,” said Elana Freedman of
Farmington.
Elana met her biological
mother, Evelyn “Evie” Jackson of
Douglassville, Pa., last June 23,
her 26th birthday. Steve and Joan
Freedman of West Bloomfield
adopted Elana a few days after
she was born in 1989 at Abington
Memorial Hospital in Abington
Township, Pa. Both Douglassville
and Abington Township are in the
Philadelphia area.
It was an emotional reunion
for both Elana and Evie, one that
Elana describes as a scene out of
a “Hallmark” movie. Evie drove
10 hours from Pennsylvania to
Michigan with her boyfriend,
Rainer, to see Elana. The gath-
ering took place in downtown
Elana Freedman with her adoptive parents, Joan and Steve Freedman
Farmington. When they first
spotted each another, they ran to
meet, hugged and wept.
adopted, and her curiosity about her birth
“I couldn’t stop crying and
“Joan and I were both very happy for
mother emerged early on. Elana recalls
looking at her,” Evie said. “We look so
her because this was a dream of hers for
coloring when she was a small child and
much alike it’s ridiculous. It’s funny that
many, many years,” he said.
asking Steve and Joan, “Does she like to
all these years I wondered what she looked
Elana and Evie had lunch that day, and
like, and she looks just like me.”
Steve and Joan joined them for dinner that color, too?” Evie was the “she” to which
Elana referred.
Steve has seen a video of that moment,
evening. It was the first time Elana’s bio-
“Throughout her entire childhood, this
and he describes it as “extraordinarily
logical mother and her adoptive parents
was a concern for her,” Steve said. “She
powerful.”
had met.
always wanted to find her birth mother. So
“When Evelyn got to meet Joan and
that was part of her childhood. That did
Steve, my adoptive parents, she had com-
fort knowing that I was safe and that I was factor into raising her because those were
conversations we had with her.”
with a good family,” Elana said.
However, Steve and Joan did express
SEARCHING FOR EVIE
some concern that such a meeting might
“I’ve always wanted to know who my birth be fraught with complications.
mother was ever since I was able to under-
“We wanted to wait until she was old
stand what adoption meant,” Elana said.
enough because we didn’t know what
“I’ve always wanted to know who she was,
could happen,” Joan said. “We were always
what she looked like — I had all the ques-
fine with it once she reached a certain age
tions one would want to know.”
where she was able to manage whatever
Elana’s was a closed adoption. The
came her way.”
American Pregnancy Association defines
Elana tried to find Evie through more
a closed adoption as “an adoption process
traditional means such as family court, but
where there is no interaction of any kind
that didn’t pan out. Joan was also curious
between birth mothers and prospective
about Evie and helped with the search.
adoptive families. This means that there is Joan eventually learned Elana’s birth
no identifying information provided either mother’s name was Evelyn Jackson.
to the birth families or adoptive families.”
Now that Elana had found her birth
Elana Freedman with her birth mother,
Steve and Joan always made a “con-
mother’s name, she was able to locate Evie
Evie Jackson
scious decision” to tell Elana she was
on Facebook. Confident that Evie was

GROWING UP JEWISH
“I feel so proud to be Jewish,” Elana said.
“You feel like you belong to something
great.”

continued on page 16

14 May 5 • 2016