Searching For...?

Tonight I caught an episode of OWN network's "Searching For...?"

A 20-year-old woman named Aimee is searching for her mother. She has wanted to search all her life!  Her adoptive mother told her that when she was 18 she could go to the adoption agency and find her mother. No idea if the adoptive mother believed this, but Aimee counted the days till she turned 20.

She spoke of her love for her adoptive mother, but also shared her feelings of not fitting in. Of being "different."

On her 18th birthday she went to the adoption agency and got non ID info. She was very disappointed but turned to the TV show for help.

The searcher on the show is herself adopted. She finds Aimee's mother and also tells her that she is the youngest of FOUR sisters!

Aimee contacts her mother and one sister, the only who "knows" that she exists.  She has a good reunion with her sister, but as the episode ends she laments not hearing from her again and having never heard from her mother, who is fearful of her other daughters finding out her secret.

One other thing: the searcher gets the adoptive mother to share that the adoption was supposed to "semi-open."  She was supposed to end photos but never did!  I am left to wonder if Aimee's mother had received those photos, might she have not kept her loss a secret?

My search wish...

After watching the show I went online to seek help with a search I need help with. The search reunites family and friends.  This is what I wrote to them:

I am searching for Jaimie (or Jamie) Auerbach. She is the daughter of my best friend Ellen who was killed in a car accident when Jaimie was just an infant along with Jaimie’s two year old sister, Dayla - six months older than my daughter Adira - born (in 1979) needing multiple heart surgeries. Ellen's husband, Barry, was driving the car. They were on a reconciliation weekend before Barry was to enter drug rehab. Barry's drug addiction had caused him to overdosed several times. I knew he could not care for Jaimie and I was prepared to, but Barry's aunt Loretta  took Jaimie in. Loretta did not want to go for adoption or legal custody though, and after a while, Barry decided he was OK and left the east coast and married someone. I have never seen Jaimie since.

She is my best friend's daughter. I worry about her and wonder if she is OK. I wonder if Barry was a good father to her and if her step mother was loving and caring. I also want to share with Jaimie my fond memories of her mother and some photos I have of her.

Barry's last name is Auerbach and his aunt Loretta lived in Freehold, NJ. Her husband owned an exterminating business and they had a son and daughter who would be in their 40s now. My ex-husband might remember Loretta's last name or her husband's name and they would hopefully know where Barry moved to and hopefully have kept in touch and know where Jaimie is. I tried looking for Jaimie Auerbach on Facebook, etc. but it's too common a name and she might be married now. I PRAY that you can help me! I think of her SOOO often, and a lot more recently!

It's ironic because I have been involved in adoption for more than 30 years. I ran a support group in the 80s and helped reunite HUNDREDS of families separated by adoption! I have also recently been found on Facebook by one of my foster children, who calls me "Mom"! And now I am reaching out to you for help with this search.

The photo is Ellen and Dayla, approx. 1981.

Please wish me luck that the show chooses to help me!