Women Get Day To Remember

Mother’s Day has a special meaning for a Newberg woman who found her birth mother using her newly acquired Internet service.

Given up for adoption at the age of 16 months, it wasn’t until recently that Marian Newell learned her birth mother’s name. She used directories on the Internet earlier this month to locate her mother in Sugarland, Texas.

When the phone call came, her mother couldn’t believe her ears.

“This has got to be the most wonderful Mother’s Day gift ever,” said Peggy Kirchheiner. “When my Marian called, I thought I was hearing things.

“I couldn’t believe it was true,” she said. “I have thought about her every day. I never stopped loving her. She’s a beautiful girl, isn’t she?”

Marian Newell was born May 10, 1955, in Korea to a Korean mother and American serviceman father.

The name on her birth certificate read Kim, Mae Wol. Her mother, Ohchosoon, worked as a waitress at a local Officer’s Club, where the Americans called her Peggy.

Newell’s father never married Ohchosoon and left South Korea suddenly when he became seriously ill. Worried about her daughter’s future as a child of mixed race, Ohchosoon decided to put the girl up for adoption.

Marian was adopted by a Clackamas County couple, Joseph and Dorothy Wilson and grew up on the Wilsons’ farm near Estacada. Newell said she began thinking about her birth mother after having children of her own.

“Do I look like her?” Newell wondered. “What’s she doing right now?”

Marian went to South Korea three times, only to find records were destroyed. She found no trace of Peggy who, unknown to Marian, had married another U.S. serviceman and moved to the States in 1959.

As the years passed, Marian had two children and adopted a third - from Korea. About a year ago, in her adoptive parents’ papers, Marian found a letter with her birth mother’s last name - Kirchheiner.

Using the Internet service recently installed at the Newberg pediatrician’s office where she works, Marian found some possible relatives in directories. She called one number and found a half-brother.

“Is my mother alive?” she asked.

“Yes.”

“Is she in good health?”

“Yes.”

Newell started to cry.

“In the back of your mind you always think it’s never going to happen,” she said. “But then you tell yourself to keep looking, just to keep looking.”

Kirchheiner plans to visit Oregon for a week later this month, and Marian plans to visit Texas in June.

“I went to the Hallmark’s shop the other day, and I was reading through all the cards for Mother’s Day and I started crying,” Marian said. “I wanted to yell out to everyone in that store, ‘I’ve found my mom. I’ve finally found her.”’