\tIt wasn\u2019t a new car, an iPhone or one of the latest and greatest electronic gadgets.
\n\tIt was her birth mother.<\/p>\n
\tAfter extensive research, White located her biological mother, Bette Fanning, who had given her up for adoption in 1965.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cI was a single mother. I had been divorced from my first husband. I had three boys. I just felt like I couldn\u2019t raise her as good as somebody else might be able to,\u201d said Fanning, who was living in Quincy, Mass. when she made the decision to give Jackie up for adoption.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cAt the time, my brother and his wife lived in Florida, so all of the kids and I came down to Florida and that\u2019s where I had Jackie. My brother found me a doctor and the doctor was the one who knew a lawyer that dealt in adoptions. I never saw her. I just knew that she was a girl.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tWhite, who grew up in Pascagoula, Miss. and attended Sacred Heart Elementary School and Our Lady of Victories High School, was a child when her parents told her that she had been adopted. \u201cI was probably eight years-old,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\tBy the time she learned she was adopted, White\u2019s adopted parents had already been divorced for just over three years.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cHe remarried about a year later and he and his wife were the ones that raised me,\u201d said White, who was pregnant with her first son when she began the search for the woman who gave her the gift of life.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cI was 19,\u201d she said. \u201cI tried to go through resources that I knew (to find her).\u201d<\/p>\n
\tOne of those resources was Ocean Springs resident Lettie White, her future mother-in-law. \u201cShe tried to help me go in the right direction and did as much research as she could,\u201d Jackie White.<\/p>\n
\tFanning also thought about trying to find the girl she gave up at birth.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cThen I kind of got the feeling that maybe she wouldn\u2019t accept me and you don\u2019t want that rejection,\u201d said Fanning, who is a parishioner of St. Anastasia Parish in St. Augustine, Fla. and a worker with the Diocese of St. Augustine\u2019s Catholic Charities office .
\n\t\u201cBut (Jackie) got brave and she did it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tThe Search<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n \tIt took 26 years for Jackie White, who is the mother of two boys and a girl, to find her mother. \t\u00a0\"So I wrote different agencies and researched hospitals. It would get so frustrating that I would finally just have to stop for a while because it kind of gets to you and you just have to put it down and stop.<\/p>\n \t\u201cI did that numerous times over the years. I would always hit brick walls. When you don\u2019t have a name or a true address, you don\u2019t have these things that are so important and it makes it very difficult. When you\u2019re adopted, your birth certificate is completely altered. So there wasn\u2019t even a hospital name on it.\u201d<\/p>\n \tJackie White said that after her adopted father died, things began to fall into perspective. \tTheir revamped efforts led them to the Jackson County archives in Pascagoula.<\/p>\n \tAs a child, Jackie White was involved in a case before the Mississippi State Supreme Court, which is recorded in the State Archives in Jackson. As a result, with the help of the Jackson County archivist, she was able to find information in those records that would eventually help her to find her mother.<\/p>\n \t\u201cThere were over 500 pages of legal documents and that\u2019s where I was able to find my adoption record with the name that she had whenever I was born. After we found the paperwork with the name on it, it didn\u2019t even take a month before we connected.\u201d<\/p>\n \tLettie White, a genealogy buff who spent many years trying to find her own grandmother, said she was thrilled at the challenge of helping her daughter-in-law locate her mother. \tOn the day she went to Jackson to comb through page after page of legal documents, Jackie was optimistic that she would find some information. \u201cBut I didn\u2019t know how it would pan out,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \t\u201cI was all by myself when I found all of this information,\u201d she said. \u201cI was in the library where it was very quiet and I wanted to scream. I was looking around for somebody to share it with. There were two or three people in there. They didn\u2019t care.\u201d<\/p>\n \tThe Reunion<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n \tAfter obtaining a copy of the adoption record and some other files, including some photos, Jackie called Lettie to inform her that after 26 years of searching, they had finally hit pay dirt. \t\u201cThe phone rang and I was thinking, oh no, because this was when all of the politicians were calling, so I go, \u2018What are you selling?\u2019 and she goes, \u2018Hello\u2019 and I go \u2018What are you selling?\u2019 and she goes \u2018Nothing\u2019 I think she said, \u201cIs Elizabeth Fanning there?\u2019 And I go, \u2018Why? Is she missing?\u2019\u201d Fanning recalled.<\/p>\n \t\u201cAnd I never said that to anybody in my life. And she goes, \u2018I hope not.\u2019 After that, she asked me if I had a daughter on December 2, 1965 and I took a deep breath and said, \u2018Are you my daughter?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n \tThe two hit it off right away.<\/p>\n \t\u201cWe talked for three hours that night,\u201d Jackie White said.<\/p>\n \t\u201cShe was asking me what height I was, what color eyes I have and comparing everything,\u201d said Fanning, who has a distinct Massachusetts accent.<\/p>\n \t\u201cThen she said, \u2018We want to come down and see you, if that\u2019s alright with you.\u2019 I said, \u2018Of course.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n \tSo, on Aug. 6, 2011, the two met for the very first time in Saint Augustine. Jackie had previously sent her mother a few pictures of herself. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t send her any because I wanted her to be surprised,\u201d Fanning said.<\/p>\n \tWhen they finally met, Jackie was seeing her mother\u2019s face for the very first time. \u201cWe had a good visit and a good laugh,\u201d Fanning said. \u201cHer husband, Jerry, hugged me as he came through the door. It was a very relaxed atmosphere.\u201d<\/p>\n \tJackie said Jerry has been \u201cone of my biggest supporters\u201d throughout the entire search. \t\u201cWe\u2019re still pinching ourselves,\u201d added Jackie.<\/p>\n \tWhat Jackie ultimately got was a package deal consisting of three new brothers \u2013 two older and one younger \u2014 to go along with her mother. Another of Fanning\u2019s sons is deceased.<\/p>\n \tMeanwhile, Fanning, who is widowed, has added three grandchildren and a great-grandchild to the fold.<\/p>\n \t\u201cIt\u2019s wonderful,\u201d she said. \u201cI had four grandchildren and now I have seven.\u201d<\/p>\n \tLike mother, like daughter<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n \tJackie said she has never felt any bitterness toward Betty for putting her up for adoption.<\/p>\n \t\u201cThere was always the question of (why). My adoptive parents would tell me stories but, for whatever reasons, none of the stories they told me were true. I never had any bitterness about it because, as a mother, I feel that, if you give a child up for adoption, it\u2019s under extreme circumstances. I can\u2019t feel bad for anyone who makes a decision based on the information they have at the time.\u201d<\/p>\n \tFanning said she is proud of the woman Jackie has become.<\/p>\n \t\u201cI told her the other day that, if I was going to pick a daughter, that would be her,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \t\"She\u2019s perfect. She sews. She owns her own sewing business (Jackie\u2019s in Ocean Springs). And she cooks up a storm.\u201d<\/p>\n \tThe two have learned that they also have a few things in common.<\/p>\n \t\u201cWe drop things a lot and trip a lot,\u201d Fanning said.<\/p>\n \t\u201cWhen they came down to St. Augustine and I was in the kitchen banging things in the cupboard, Jerry said, \u2018You sound just like Jackie.\u2019 My husband always said that too. He would say, \u2018Why are you making so much noise?\u2019 because I was always dropping a dish or breaking something.\u201d<\/p>\n \t\u201cI think we are a lot alike in certain things, which kind of goes along with the understanding of psychology and sociology and genetics versus your social environment,\u201d Jackie said. \u201cWe\u2019re very similar in our personal tastes as girls.\u201d<\/p>\n \t\"They showed up for Thanksgiving dinner wearing almost identical outfits,\u201d Lettie White said. \t\u201cAbsolutely,\u201d said Jackie. \u201cWe talk for hours and hours. We stay up late talking on the phone. And, before we met in person, it didn\u2019t occur to me, that she was an hour ahead of me and I was keeping her up way past what I would consider to be a decent hour.\u201d \tHaving a daughter, Fanning said, is nice because \u201cyou can talk with her about things that you can\u2019t talk about with a boy.\u201d<\/p>\n \tTurning toward her mother, Jackie added, \u201cThere are just no words to describe how this feels. It\u2019s like time never existed. I just feel like I\u2019ve known you all my life.\u201d<\/p>\n \tPosted with permission from Gulf Pine Catholic<\/a>, official publication of the Diocese of Biloxi, Mississippi.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cI never had the official legal document of the adoption, so sometimes I would search for that document because I didn\u2019t know if the document would be in Mississippi or in Florida where I was born,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cIt kind of put into perspective how not many people may be around who know the story or have information,\u201d she said. \u201cHe was never of any help in that direction, so Lettie and I got a lot more serious about it right after he died.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cIt still gives me goose bumps when I think about it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\n\tSoon after, she called her birth mother.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cHe was really excited for her,\u201d said Fanning. \u201cThere was a lot of honest talk. Nobody was stiff about anything. It was a miracle. It\u2019s still a miracle.\"<\/p>\n
\n\tNow that they are reunited, Jackie and Bette plan to stay in touch.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s ok,\u201d said Fanning. \u201cYou can call me anytime.\u201d<\/p>\n