Woman reunited with long-lost niece
Published: October 9, 2005
Robin Bartel scrolled to the bottom of her computer page on the first day of spring and squealed.
Startled, her husband, Gary Bartel, sitting in the same room of their Kiski Township residence, asked, “What?”
He soon learned that Robin’s excitement was well-founded. After a search of many years, one that covered more than two decades, she was about to put what she calls “the final piece of the (family) puzzle where it belongs.”
The saga began in 1983, when Bartel’s sister, Sonia Joan Ament Orosz, a frightened 16-year-old living a long way from her Allegheny Township home, gave birth to a baby girl in a Louisiana hospital. Sonia named the girl Danielle Renee.
Three weeks later, experiencing depression and certain she would not be able to provide Danielle Renee with the life Sonia wanted for her, Sonia made the wrenching decision to give the baby up for adoption.
Sonia never saw Danielle Renee again, although she hoped that, one day, there could be a reunion.
That hope was dashed in 2000 on a road in Allegheny Township, where Sonia, by then a 33-year-old mother of two living in the North Vandergrift section of Parks, died in a car accident.
Enter Sonia’s sister, Robin Ament Bartel, who, using bits of notes and records Sonia left behind, continued the quest to locate Danielle Renee, by that time a young woman.
Bartel employed every method she could think of in her search, including the Internet. Hoping that her niece still was in Louisiana, where she had been adopted and renamed Laura McFerrin, Bartel called the state’s social-services agency and mailed a copy of Sonia’s death certificate.
“I wanted to let her know that there was family here, and we wanted to get to know her and tell her anything she wanted to know about her biological mother,” Bartel says.
The agency was as helpful as it could be given the constraints of Louisiana law, Bartel says. “Laura had to be 18 and initiate the search herself,” Bartel says.
When Laura was ready, her adopted mother, Karen McFerrin, helped her, posting on Web sites.
Bartel says that there were many times she wondered whether she would find her niece.
Her patience paid off that first night of spring this year, when she found Laura’s contact information posted on the Web site Adoption.com Reunion Registry.
After initial hesitation, she called Laura’s number.
“I’m Sonia’s older sister,” Bartel said. “I’m just calling to see if you would like to talk.”
Laura’s reply was immediate: “Oh, yes, Ma’am. I’ve been waiting for this day,” she said excitedly.
They talked for about two hours. Laura asked about her mom, her half brother, James “Bubba,” and half sister, Tessa, whom she had not met. After Sonia’s death, Bartel became guardian and then adopted Bubba; and another sister, Betty Ament-Myers of Kiski Township, adopted Tessa.
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