Siblings share a rewarding reunion

SANDPOINT, Idaho (AP) — At the age of 4, Priscilla Nelson learned she was adopted thanks to a neighborhood kid with a big mouth.

Her adoptive parents confirmed the revelation, but its impact didn't sink in right away.

"I was just too young to really understand," Nelson recalls. "I said, 'OK."'

But over the following couple of years, the questions piled up in her mind and the sense that something was missing expanded. She loved her parents and the older sister she grew up with, but she still longed to see her face in the face of another — the crease of a mouth, the pinch of a brow or the profile of a chin.

"Not having somebody I looked like really bothered me," said Nelson.

Her parents encouraged her to seek out her biological mother when she turned 18, if nothing else to find out her medical history. Curiosity overcame apprehension in her mid-20s, and she began seeking the puzzle pieces to complete the picture of who she is.

Telephone book listings provided leads but no connections. Years passed and Nelson moved from the Los Angles area to Sandpoint, hopeful that the migration would heal a faltering marriage. It didn't, but Nelson couldn't lose the feeling that the move meant good things were on the horizon.

Nelson's feeling was confirmed upon meeting her current husband, Guy. But she had no idea what else would transpire.

It started with Nancy Johnson, a judge's secretary at the Bonner County Courthouse, where Nelson was working as a deputy clerk. Johnson, a genealogy enthusiast, found the contact that completed the circuit in 2001.

Nelson was elated and confidently composed correspondence with the expectation of a reunion, but she wound up with another crater to traverse. Her advances were summarily rebuffed in the interest of maintaining the cloak of the past.

"I didn't even think she would reject me. It didn't even enter my mind," Nelson said. "I was never more hurt in my whole life."

Nelson, 51, was devastated but hoped time would erode any defensive barriers. She continued to reach out with Christmas cards and photos. They came back to Nelson stamped "Return to Sender."