Letters dated July 30, 1999

Hope you are well...

Dear Merrily,

Please let us know that you were not near the tragedy.

I guess no city is immune these days.

Bryan and Melanie are off on their wonderful trip.

I heard from them on Wednesday from Seattle.

I will write this weekend, as I am dashing out the door to work.

Love,

MOB

PS Do you have email at home? or just at work? is it okay to use?

Re: Hope you are well...

Dear MOB,

Gapetto and I are both safe, the shootings took place in Buckhead

which is about 4 miles from where we both work in midtown.

These kinds of horrible things seem to be happening all too

frequently these days.

I'm glad to hear Bryan and Melanie are enjoying themselves. I didn't

hear back from him about his allergies. I could easily make this a

cat-free environment while they are here - and is he allergic to

dogs? Any tips on how to stock the fridge?

Life sure has a way of working things out. Russ and I are trying to

get pregnant - it is the first time in my life I felt that I was ready

to and now I have a partner who is equally excited about it. I had

so many issues to resolve about being pregnant and about feeling

that I was ready to be a good parent. I have never been happier in

my life than I am right now and that's when I heard from you and

Bryan. It seems so much more than circumstantial. I am excited,

nervous, anxious, apprehensive, happy - all kinds of emotions are

surfacing in light of this meeting. I imagine that you have some

conflicting emotions too. You seem so wonderful with Bryan.

Checking to make sure that it will go okay but then stepping back

and giving him room to fly. You seem like a very good mother and

I really feel blessed by that. I always loved Dr. O.B. and it seems

he was very intuitive in picking you.

I am expecting a couple books from amazon.com in the mail

today on this kind of reunion. The ones I chose deal with all sides'

emotions - the birth mother, the adoptive mother and the child's.

This is such a unique kind of thing I don't know anyone who has been

through it. I have a friend who found his birth mother and she doesn't

want to have any sort of relationship with him and I know that hurts

him. If the books are good I will pass them on to you.

In the meantime, we wait for their arrival...

Hope to hear from you soon

Love,

Merrily

PS I can access my email from home and work. I have my own

graphic design studio now so it's just me and the occasional freelances

who don't use my internet.