{"id":41,"date":"2019-12-06T20:20:30","date_gmt":"2019-12-06T20:20:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/findingmywayhome.us\/?p=41"},"modified":"2021-02-16T16:40:49","modified_gmt":"2021-02-16T21:40:49","slug":"the-beginning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/findingmywayhome.us\/index.php\/2019\/12\/06\/the-beginning\/","title":{"rendered":"Little Miss X"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"padding-top: 50px;\" class=\"tmpl-text-11 boldgrid-section dynamic-gridblock\">\r\n<div class=\"container\">\r\n<div class=\"row color4-background-color color-4-text-contrast bg-background-color\" style=\"padding-bottom: 0px;\">\r\n<div class=\"col-md-3 col-sm-6 col-xs-12\">\r\n<p class=\"\"><a href=\"https:\/\/findingmywayhome.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/IMG_5048.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"bg-img alignnone wp-image-34 size-medium\" style=\"margin-top: -40px;\" src=\"https:\/\/findingmywayhome.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/IMG_5048-243x300.jpg\" alt=\"My first baby picture\" width=\"243\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/findingmywayhome.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/IMG_5048-243x300.jpg 243w, https:\/\/findingmywayhome.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/IMG_5048-768x948.jpg 768w, https:\/\/findingmywayhome.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/IMG_5048.jpg 770w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 243px) 100vw, 243px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"col-md-9 col-sm-6 col-xs-12 align-column-center\">\r\n<h2 class=\"\">Little Miss X, the &#8220;Deserted Babe&#8221;<\/h2>\r\n<p class=\"\">It was February, 2000.&nbsp; I was in &nbsp;the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lva.virginia.gov\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Library of Virginia<\/a>, looking in the archives for a newspaper article to confirm the curious story I had just read in my adoption papers.&nbsp;<br>After poring over what seemed like miles of microfiche, this large photo suddenly appeared.&nbsp; I instantly recognized myself, but still had to zoom in&#8230; oh yes, those are my ears!&nbsp; The feature I hated most about my appearance was&nbsp; proof that I had indeed found my story.<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"row color3-background-color color-3-text-contrast bg-background-color\" style=\"padding-top: 20px; padding-bottom: 140px;\">\r\n<div class=\"col-md-4 col-sm-1 col-xs-11\">\r\n<p class=\"\">I kept searching and found four more articles about my abandonment.&nbsp; But this one was the prize.&nbsp; This one proved that I was certainly not thrown away, but lovingly cared for.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"\">The student nurse, whose face I am intently searching, tilts her gaze down toward me with sadness and concern.&nbsp; Her instructor, holding the supplies that had been left by my side on the ground, has a kind but cynical expression, understanding that &#8220;these things&#8221; happen.<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"col-md-1 col-sm-12 col-xs-12\"><\/div>\r\n<div class=\"col-md-4 col-sm-4 col-xs-12\" style=\"padding: 1em;\">\r\n<p class=\"\">Right there, in front of everyone in the library, my eyes filed with tears.&nbsp; My heart exploded, and has been an active volcano of wonderful, though sometimes frightening, emotions since then.&nbsp;<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"\"><strong>The quest had begun, to find my way back home.&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\r\n<p class=\"\"><em><a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/eoSn2Y-b6wI\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">&#8220;and I&#8217;m wasted, and I can&#8217;t find my way back home&#8221; <\/a>&nbsp;<\/em><\/p>\r\n<p class=\"\">&nbsp;Video and Song by Steve Winwood, copyright information <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Can%27t_Find_My_Way_Home\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">here.<\/a><\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"col-md-1 col-sm-12 col-xs-12\"><\/div>\r\n<div class=\"col-md-2 col-sm-2 col-xs-12\" style=\"padding: 1em;\">\r\n<div class=\"row bg-editor-hr-wrap\">\r\n<div class=\"col-md-12 col-xs-12 col-sm-12\"><hr class=\"color1-color bg-hr\" style=\"margin-left: 0;\" width=\"50%\"><\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<p class=\"\" style=\"font-weight: bold;\">&#8220;&#8230;Somebody Holds the Key&#8230;&#8221;<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"tmpl-contact-11 boldgrid-section dynamic-gridblock\">\r\n<div class=\"container-fluid\">\r\n<div class=\"row\" style=\"padding-top: 25px; padding-bottom: 35px;\">\r\n<div class=\"col-md-2 col-sm-1 col-xs-12\"><\/div>\r\n<div class=\"col-md-5 col-sm-7 col-xs-12\" style=\"padding: 1em;\">\r\n<h4>Sign up for our newsletter today.<\/h4>\r\n<p class=\"\">Looking for inspiration?&nbsp; Join me on the journey home.<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"col-md-5 col-sm-4 col-xs-12 align-column-center\" style=\"padding: 1em;\">\r\n<p class=\"wow headShake\" data-wow-duration=\"1s\" data-wow-delay=\"1s\"><a class=\"btn btn-color-4\" href=\"#\">Join today<\/a><\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<p class=\"\" style=\"font-size: 9px; text-align: center;\">All photos \u00a9 Allison Suzanne Downes, unless otherwise noted.&nbsp; No permission for use is granted.&nbsp; Any media linked to from this site are the property of their respective owners.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Little Miss X, the &#8220;Deserted Babe&#8221; It was February, 2000.&nbsp; I was in &nbsp;the Library of Virginia, looking in the archives for a newspaper article to confirm the curious story<\/p>\n<div class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn button-secondary\" href=\"https:\/\/findingmywayhome.us\/index.php\/2019\/12\/06\/the-beginning\/\">Read More<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":34,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"bgseo_title":"","bgseo_description":"","bgseo_robots_index":"index","bgseo_robots_follow":"follow","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[7,6,8,5,9,10],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/findingmywayhome.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/findingmywayhome.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/findingmywayhome.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/findingmywayhome.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/findingmywayhome.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41"}],"version-history":[{"count":25,"href":"https:\/\/findingmywayhome.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":94,"href":"https:\/\/findingmywayhome.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41\/revisions\/94"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/findingmywayhome.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/findingmywayhome.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/findingmywayhome.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/findingmywayhome.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}