MAN CALLS IN AN ADOPTION AGENCY TO KNOW ABOUT HIS BIRTH MOTHER, LEARNS THE BIGGEST TRUTH OF HIS LIFE INSTEAD

Adopting a child and giving him/her a good life is the kindest thing one can do. The Burack family is one of those amazing people. They adopted 6 months old Howard from an adoption agency and began raising him. The boy knew that he was adopted and would always wonder about his birth mother.

Time passed by, he grew up. But the desire to know more about his birth mother did not fade. So when he turned 35, he decided to find out about her. He called the adoption agency to fetch records about his mother but what he got in return literally made him rooted to his spot. He just had learned an unbelievable truth about his life. It had nothing to do with his birth mother but someone else.

Born

The story began in 1963 when Howard Burack took birth In New York City. Due to some unfavorable circumstances, his mother had to take a very difficult step that was going to kickstart a chain of unbelievable events. 

Adoption

She gave up on her son. The boy was put up for adoption soon after his birth. The adoption agency, Louise Wise Services had taken the responsibility of finding him a family. But he could not get a family until he turned 6 months old. 

Louis Wise Service

The agency was very popular in those times as it happened to be a Jewish adoption agency in New York City. The Jewish family would look up to this agency for adoption. The Jewish would turn to this adoption agency only to give up or adopt children.   

A Normal Childhood

Howard got adopted by a local New York family. Howard describes, “I grew up in a nice, upper-middle-class family in a nice, suburban area north of New York City, in Rockland County, and had a normal childhood, normal whatever, great parents.” As mentioned earlier, he was 6 months old at the time of adoption.  

On Cloud Nine

His adoptive parents were on cloud nine. He was perhaps the cutest baby they had seen in their entire life. He had large sparkling eyes, beautiful smile, and a very cute face. Little did his adoptive parents know that this angelic baby is going to turn their life upside down in some years.

Something Was Wrong

His childhood was not a smooth one. The infant would often cry without a reason. Sometimes he would not even eat or go to sleep. His behavior did not seem to be normal and that really stressed his adoptive parents. But with time he changed.

Birth Mother

Howard had loving parents. However, the feeling of being adopted never went away. Even though everything seemed to be in his life, he felt something missing. He wanted to know about his biological mother and why did she leave him? There must be a reason. He tried to find out but what he actually got was something he had never imagined existed.    

Missing

Howard explained, “You just feel like you’re missing something, just don’t know what it was. You can’t touch it. You can’t feel it. Something was there.” What was he missing, he was soon going to find out. 

Curiosity

Although he was eager to know about his birth mother, he never asked his adoptive parents about it as he did not want to hurt their feelings. It is not that he was not happy with his adoptive parents, he was just curious to know about his birth mother.

Time Passed

The years went by and the baby Howard entered into adulthood. Everything had changed except that feeling. He still felt as if something was missing. So, when he turned 35, he decided to follow his intuition. He knew he had been adopted from Louise Wise Service so he turned to the agency to find his birth records. 

Keeping To Oneself

Growing up with that feeling was very difficult for him. There were times when he would not talk to anyone and keep to himself. But now on his 35th birthday, he decided to unravel this mystery of his life. He decided to find out about his birth mother.

Calling The Agency

He was hoping that with the records he might also get some details about his birth mother. The man called the agency. A man with a heavy voice picked up his call. He asked him about his birth records. The man told him that it is available.  

A Shocking Discovery

Unfortunately, he could not get any detail about his birth mother. But he kept on pressing as he still could not believe that the agency did not know anything about his mother. Perhaps the agency was not willing to divulge in any details about his mother.    

An Information

However, the agency did tell him something astonishing about his family. Well, this piece of information shattered his life. And then he realized why he used to feel that there was something missing in his life.  

Kept In Dark

After putting the phone down he immediately called his adoptive mother and asked her if what he had been told by the agency was true or not. Surprisingly, his mother had no idea. She too was kept in dark. You must be wondering what was he told by the agency that created chaos among his family? 

Identical Twin

The man had an IDENTICAL TWIN brother. They were separated at the time of adoption. How could he not know that he has an identical twin? Why was it kept from him and his adoptive family? And most importantly where was his identical twin?

The Twin Brother

Now everything began to make sense. Why he always used to feel as if something was missing from his life. It was his twin brother. Where was he? Does he know that he has a twin brother? He needed to find out. Howard asked the agency about his whereabouts.   

The Search Begins

Unfortunately, the adoption agency did not disclose his current address to him nor did they give him any record of his. “I spent about two years, every day, thinking about this. It never left,” Howard explained. 

Finding Him

“It was pretty disturbing. I mean, it was just an unknown. It’s like, ‘How could I find this person? Am I ever going to find this person? Is this person alive?’” continued Howard.

2 Years Later…

The man spent his two years looking for his brother. However, he could not get any clue about him. There wasn’t a single day he did not think about his long-lost brother. Many times he wondered if he would ever be able to find him.  

Closing Down

Just when he gave up, fate played its game. In 2000, Louise Wise Services was about to close down and one of its employees had just learned that she was diagnosed with terminal cancer. You must be wondering why are we telling you this.

Secret Out

The heavy-hearted woman had learned her fate and so she decided to bring some secrets to light. She decided to tell some of the children who got adopted out of the agency about their separated twin. Her decision was going to create chaos in the world.   

The Phone Call

One of the kids she called was Doug Rausch. Doug quoted her, “She goes, ‘I’m not supposed to do this. I can get in a lot of trouble, but I’m going to do it anyway.’ So I appreciate that.” “She said, ‘Well I have some news for you. You have an identical twin brother.’ And I was like, I literally almost drove off the road. It’s not something you ever expect to hear.” 

The Long-Lost Twin

The name of Howard’s long lost brother was Doug. Doug had permitted the agency to disclose his contact information and name to Howard. Howard reminisced, “I finally called him and we talked for a while and it was, you know, like I knew this person my whole life. It was amazing.”

Reunited At Last

Howard and Doug had their first talk on the phone. At first, they could not understand what to say. Both of them had fallen short of words. But they overcame their hesitation and decided to meet up.

Meeting

The two decided to meet at an airport in Columbus, Ohio. Doug described, “I don’t get nervous really easy or rattled and I still remember sitting on that plane dripping sweat and just being so nervous about, you know, meeting this person that looked like me, that I had no connection with.”    

An Instant Bond

Both of them were very much nervous. What were they going to talk about? They had nothing in common except for their past. “It was just the funniest thing I’d ever seen ‘cause it literally was like looking in my reflection, but then the reflection would move and do something I wasn’t doing. … I don’t know how to describe that and I don’t think most people can relate to it, but it was a very, very weird feeling,” Doug said.    

Same To Same

Howard told, “I mean, it’s just like you’re looking at yourself in the mirror and, I think we hit it off, you know, right away and you know, instant connection. I felt like I knew Doug my whole life.”

Parallel Lives

The twins shared everything with each other from their childhood to their current life. And for the first time in life, Howard felt as if he had everything. Nothing was missing now. Doug too was extremely happy and surprised over the similarity they shared. He expressed, “we lived parallel lives essentially.”

Things In Common

They had a lot in common for example, they both tied the knot in 1992 and despised condiments. Surprisingly kids of the both of them had an interest in hockey and they played coach to their children though they had never played the game before.  

Reaction

They wondered how would their family react to it. “They’ll probably get mad at me if they hear this but I think they’re more similar than me and Howie,” Doug referred to his and Howard’s wives. How are they so similar?

Successful

Doug explained, “They both were runners. They both were successful in their fields and they both are pretty type-A personalities. I don’t know, I think they’re similar in a lot of ways. And you can only imagine that’s probably because what we both were attracted to…”

Unsettling Memories

Howie and Doug could not stop talking. There was a lot to catch up on. Both of them also talked about strange visitors that w would come to their house to film them, examine them and ask them questions. 

Kept From Parents

They also learned that the agency had kept adoptive parents of both in dark. None of them had been informed about their child’s twin sibling.   

The Research Study

David and Howard’s parents were told that this routine filming and testing were done because their child was a subject of research conducted to see the progress of adoptive children under the care of their adoptive parents. Unfortunately, their parent bought that lie.     

Everything Was A Lie

Lori Shinseki explained, “they decided to separate these twins and triplets, place them in different families, and never told the families that they had adopted a half of a twin set or a third of a triplet set.” She is a documentarian who helped Howard and Douglas and many other sets of triplets and twins that had to undergo separation by Louise Wise Services. 

Nature Vs. Nurture

Shinseki explained, “What they did was they told the families that this baby is in an adoption study. ‘If you want the baby, we would like to continue studying the child.’ And, of course, the families would do anything.”

Answers

The filmmaker made a documentary named “The Twinning Reaction.” The movie is about helping twins getting their answers from the agency. The once separated twins narrate their story about how they felt after getting separated. 

Fighting For Answers

All the information extracted from the study is kept in Yale University and is sealed for the next 40 years. But Howard and Doug were hell-bent on getting their answers so they went on to hire a lawyer. 

Separated For Good

The result showed that the two stayed together for six months after their birth. However, both of them were adopted out to different families leading to their separation. Resultantly signs of distress were seen in both of them. Unfortunately, that was not it. 

Consequences

What worse their motor dexterity too declined. Clearly, Doug and Howard both suffered separation anxiety. Their parents who had no idea what was going on were very much stressed by their inexplicable behavior. 

Repercussions

Their anxiety did not limit to it. They even began to rock. Scaringly, one of them went on to beat his head until he turned 2. Their condition had only gotten worse under this “nature vs nurture” study. 

Upsetting

Doug condemns the study, “To do what they decided to do.” “It’s just wrong. What they did was really, really wrong. The more stuff I read, the more wrong it seems and the more upsetting it gets.”

Monitoring The Child

Doug’s adoptive father too had something to say on the issue, “They gave us Douglas and said, ‘We’ll let you have this child, but we’re going to monitor it.” Their parents agreed though they too could grasp why was it so necessary. 

Compulsion

“So it was a question of if I say no, they won’t give me the child. I think there was a certain amount of coercion to our permitting them to conduct the study,” Mr. Rausch said. Now they know why.

A Cautionary Tale

Doug, Howard along with other separated twins appeared in the documentary by Shinseki. The documentary was made to help separate twins reunite and get the answers to their questions. “Humans are not data… People in power have to be very careful to remember that you can really affect someone’s life, in ways that you just didn’t even mean to,” said Shinseki. 

Psychology Tests

Mr. Burack reminisced how the visitors would make them do, “All kinds of psychology tests and drawings. I was always kind of a shy kid and you had people asking you questions and asking you to do stuff. It was a little bit horrifying.”

Not Looking Backward

Howard explained, “It would have been awesome growing up together, but I believe we were both very lucky and are not looking backward.” What happened in the past is water under the bridge now and from now on they want to focus on their current life. They spend as much time together as they can. 

Not The Only Case

Just like Doug and Howard, there were many other twins and triplets who got separated from each other because of this study. Luckily for Doug and Howard, even though after going so much stress and anxiety they never thought of committing suicide. There were some kids who went on to commit suicide.  

Twisted

This is amazing how a phone call made Howard confront the biggest truth of his life. He could have never imagined that he has a twin brother. His urge to know more about his birth mother brought him that far.  How did you like this story?