Singer hopes to find birth mother through The X Factor

David Correy

Singer David Correy is hoping to find his birth mother by appearing on the The X Factor competition. Sounds bizarre, right? But what else is the 26-year-old from Brazil going to do when he feels he has no other way? Adopted from Recife when he was a toddler, Correy says: "...it's the curiosity of wanting to know where I came from, if she sings and what she looks like. I feel like the not knowing is why I sing with so much soul [and] every time I'm on stage I go on there knowing that I have the opportunity to reconnect with her though what God gave me and that's the voice.'"*

Of course winning the competition's $5 million recording contract prize wouldn't be bad either.

DREAMING THE IMPOSSIBLE DREAM
Although it seems like a one in a million shot, stranger coincidences have happened. It's certainly possible that if he wins the The X Factor, the ensuing publicity--or the money he receives from a recording contract--might allow him to find his first mother. A close friend of mine adopted two boys from Recife in 1986, aged one and two. The adoption agency, since closed, gave her little information about them telling her that their lives would begin when she took them to the United States. When the boys were teenagers, she took them to Recife. Although the media did a story about their search and they appeared on a local television news program, the boys never connected with their mothers.

Democratic Convention 1996

I can relate to Correy's one-in-a-million shot that his television appearance might, just might, enable him to find his mother. In 1996 I was a delegate from Oregon to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. I had not yet reunited with my relinquished daughter, Rebecca. I assumed that she would be watching the convention and entertained a fantasy that she might spot me as the TV cameras panned the delegates, and immediately recognize our resemblance. I thought that if it were to happen, it would be most likely during the roll call of the states when the cameras closed in on the delegates as their state chair announced the state's votes. I waited patiently, Alabama, Alaska, Arizona ... New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, they were getting close, only two states to go, Ohio, Oklahoma, then Oregon.  I straightened up, leaned forward, nudging close to the state chair. My TV close up never materialized. Ohio's voted put President Clinton over the top and the convention erupted in cheers and the networks did not bother to capture the votes of the remaining states. Over a year later, Rebecca and I did connect through her persistence in searching for me. As it turned out, Rebecca did not watch the Democratic convention.

Since our reunion, I've heard other stories about far-fetched attempts to effect a reunion.  One adoptee moved into a city where her mother had lived. She knew her mother's maiden name, which was not a common name, and thought that perhaps her mother still had relatives in the area. She scanned the obituaries every day, looking for someone with the same name as her mother's maiden name. She did not find her mother--though she came close. Her mother's sister had passed away couple of months before the adoptee moved to that city. The death notice identified the decedent as having the same last name as the adoptee's mother, and having a sister with the same first name as the adoptee's mother.

Michael Johnson

David Correy may yet succeed. Celebrity status can help bring parents and children lost to adoption together. In 2009 songwriter/guitarist Michael Johnson reunited with his 40-year-old daughter, Truly Carmichael, who had been given up by her single mother, Mary, when she was four days old. After Carmichael found her mother, she asked about her Dad. Mary showed her Johnson's website.

Truly Carmichael

Over the years, Johnson had searched for both his daughter and Mary. "He was 'haunted' by the knowledge that his child was out there, somewhere, in the world. 'It was like having a ghost around, like living with a ghost. In my dreams she'd appear at my door....I didn't know if she was alive or covered with tattoos or in an abusive situation or...all the things a dad would worry about.'"**

Carmichael shares her father's musical talents; she sings and plays the Celtic harp. Johnson recently recorded a CD to be released October 6 and his daughter joins in on one tune. Other musicians have passed on musical talent: Nora Jones, though never adopted, is the biological daughter of the Indian musician Ravi Shankar. Sean Lennon and John Lennon. Et cetera.

While Johnson's connection with his daughter is a happy story, it's sad that so many obstacles to reunion exist. Agencies which deal in international adoptions should obtain and maintain complete identifying information on all the children they place. We understand that they are doing a much better job than they did in the past when the prevailing though was that, save major health problems, the child's natural family was irrelevant. Adoption records--original birth certificates and court pleadings--should be open in every state and made available to all adoptees and their parents.--Jane

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*David Correy hopes to find birth mother on "The X Factor" audition by singing Bruno Mars song
Songwriter/guitarist Michael Johnson reunites--and records--with his long lost daughter

From FMF:
A First Father's Story: Search and Reunion