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Gibb called Mitchell's manager in Vancouver and sent along the adoption profile. "It was as if you were reading Joni's biography," recalled the manager, Steve Macklam. He phoned to double-check the profile and speak to Kilauren. The next call came from Mitchell herself. "Hi, it's Joni. Please call me. I'm overwhelmed." Since then Gibb, who has a young son, has seen her family circle widen almost daily. First came a call from her grandparents in Saskatoon. Then last week she met her biological father. "I was always sort of looking for her on the street, even though I didn't know it," says Brad MacMath, a Toronto photographer. "To have a grown daughter and grandson appear out of nowhere is absolutely amazing."
Mitchell's news was read at the annual meeting of the American Adoption Congress in Dallas this month, prompting a standing ovation. The congress is one of several groups seeking to overturn laws, currently in effect in most of Canada and the U.S., that protect the privacy of birth parents and prevent their children from contacting them without prior consent. In 1995 Tennessee opened its records on all adoptions before 1951, and six other states are discussing disclosure bills. An alliance including privacy advocates, adoption agencies and lawyers from Pat Robertson's organization opposes the change, arguing that many reunions are traumatic and disruptive for the parent, and that the lack of privacy will discourage adoptions and increase abortions. "If two people want to meet, we're all for it," says William Pierce of the National Council for Adoption. "But you can't have one-sided intrusions into people's lives." There are many sides to the human heart, however, as Mitchell and her daughter now know. Their reunion, says Kilauren, "made me feel complete."
--With reporting by James L. Graff/Chicago