Paris woman finds birth family after being adopted at three days old
Photos: Submitted
After being adopted when she was only three days old, Paris resident Lisa Walker never knew her birth family, but her adoptive family showered her with love from day one.
Her adoptive mother passed away in 1982 from cancer and her hero, her father, passed away in 1995, also from cancer.
Lisa is married to David Walker and they have been together for almost 20 years while parenting Blue Heeler dogs that they love. Lisa works for Portable Storage Solutions as the Office Manager and serves on the Boys & Girls Club board, Denver Pyles Children’s Charities board, and Lamar county CrimeStoppers board.
As Lisa grew older, she started to gain interest in her birth family, noting, “As I got older and would go to a new doctor or specialist, they would want to know my medical history. I would have to say I don’t know. That made things difficult a time or two trying to diagnose issues. That’s when I really got to thinking about finding my birth parents.”
Recently, Lisa came in contact with her birth family after her friend, Vicki Ballard, helped her research and find them.
Lisa found out her birth mother’s name in 2013.
“In 2013, I sent off to get the paperwork to open my adoption records. I received them and it had my birth mom’s name on the document giving me up to my mom and dad. What knocked the air from my lungs was I saw my mom’s signature for the first time in 31 years and these two wonderful people accepted me as their own. At that point, I accepted knowing my birth mother’s name satisfied my curiosity. For Christmas in 2019, I did an ancestor.com test, not believing in the process at all. It took about five weeks to get the email with the results back. I know it wasn’t five minutes after I acknowledged the email that I started getting notifications of what I know now was actual relatives. I reached out to a nearest relative and said she was my aunt, my birth dad’s sister. We emailed and that was about it.”
This journey of discovery continued when Lisa made a post on Facebook about her adoption story in November of 2021, stating that she “felt like someone needed to read/hear/see it.”
After this, Vicki Ballard, a Paris resident, business owner, and friend of Lisa’s, reached out to offer help, telling eExtra News, “She had a Facebook post about being adopted and I saw it – my hobby is genetic genealogy and I have been fairly successful in finding some other adoptees’ information – so I offered to help Lisa and she accepted … I love the research aspect, and I feel like I get invested in these families. Lisa and I are friends and when she accepted the offer of help, I started immediately … It’s always a thrill when you can show an adoptee who they favor – many have never seen anyone that looks like them. Lisa sure favors her father.”
Vicki said that she is still working on Lisa’s case today.
Within a week, Vicki managed to track down Lisa’s brother in Hawaii from her mom’s side who was excited to meet her. Lisa was overjoyed, stating, “ I cried. A coworker was in the office at the time and he didn’t know what was going on. Later he rejoiced with me. When Vicki found my brother and sisters on my dad’s side, they did not have a clue about having another sibling. So, obviously, they weren’t so open-armed. However, the sister in Celina has been in contact and willing to provide any information I asked for. She and I have shared texts and plan on meeting this month. I have no doubt that we will get along just fine. Since I originally talked to my brother in Hawaii, we text 2 to 3 times a week. He included me in their huge fireworks show on New Year’s Eve and let me see it live. The sister that lives in Celina is ready to meet face-to-face sometime during January. Until we meet, I will not have much info on my bio dad’s side. I am excited about that. I am anxious to find time to book a trip to Hawaii also.”
In a Facebook post on November 11, 2021, Lisa shared an update on her Facebook, stating: “So, on Tuesday of this week, I received a phone call … it was my brother. He lives in Hawaii. Very educated and extremely sweet. My birth mother passed away in 2012. He wants to give me her, through his memories. The conversation went from “Are you my brother?” to “I love you.” It was the strangest feeling, yet felt like I had been connected to him all of his life. He is seven years younger than myself. I got a picture of him and his family and he has a beautiful family that is full of love … Yes, I have checked airfare pricing to Hawaii already. We had a younger brother that is no longer living. I think the most important piece of information I received this week that I was searching for was, my mother talked about me. I wasn’t a secret. My brother was always told by our mom that I would find them when I got ready. Earlier this week was that day. I look forward to growing this relationship with my brother and his family and getting to know him. Some of the things I found out about my mother yesterday: She finished school at the age of 14. She left home and started her journey at 14. She was adopted, herself. She did not have a great life growing up like I did. There were bad lifestyle decisions made. She knew, for sure, the right decision for me to have a chance at life was to give me up for adoption. She struggled in life and decision-making, but sounds like she lived life to the max. She was loved by many and had several close friends that loved her bunches. My brother told me that before she passed … he wanted to find me and she always told him that I was ok. Still wondering if she had a contact or just a maternal instinct that knew that was true. She was involved with the Hispanic culture for a while … that explains my love of Mexican food … her hair was brown with natural reddish highlights … those I hate and always try to cover up. She was a genius in some ways and helped patent a microchip through DuPont.“
Later in the post, she expressed her gratitude for Vicki’s hard work, stating, “She will never know what this has meant to me. None of this would’ve happened without Vicki’s help and I am so grateful for her and this gift she has given to me is immeasurable. I think there are many more chapters to open, but for now … I am satisfied, blessed, grateful and loved”
After this experience, Lisa stated, “To anyone out there tossing around looking for your birth parents, do it. You can carry it as far as you want to just knowing their names to actually meeting them face to face. This journey for me has completely filled my heart, even if the information that has been collected so far is all I get … but I know this is just the beginning. I hope you have enjoyed my story. If you are interested or have questions, I would be happy to lend an ear.” You can contact her at lisa_louann@icloud.com.