Looking back, it was a huge event. Kind of a momentous, life-changing moment. What were my thoughts?

I couldn’t imagine that we had found each other and were actually going to meet. I was going to meet “The Mystery Woman.”

I wondered what she looked like in person. My entire life I’d envisioned a beautiful heroine, my birth mother, who had loved me enough to carry me and then place me for adoption. Every time I’d watched “The Miss America Pageant” growing up, I’d wondered if one of the beauties on-stage was her. (Or at least if she looked like one of the beautiful women participating.)

I wondered if she was as nice and loving in person as she seemed on the phone. It seemed almost too good to be true. Not upset I’d shown up in her life unexpectedly AND she was loving, caring and kind, to boot?

I thought about how wished I’d been given more notice about meeting her so I could have lost a few pounds! (It always comes down to that for women, doesn’t it? Lol.)

Despite the fact it had been 42 years in coming, I “suddenly” found myself standing in front of her door, hand reaching toward the doorbell. The moment had come much sooner than I’d expected. I couldn’t imagine what was in store for me. What would it be like to meet a “stranger,” yet a mother, for the first time?

I’d know soon enough. Seconds away, I’d know everything.

“If you think there are no new frontiers, watch a boy ring the front doorbell on his first date.” (Olin Miller) Or, watch a 42-year-old woman ring the doorbell of her birth mother for the very first time!

I pushed the doorbell button, heard the chime, and tried to prepare myself for the opening of the door.

But really, how do you prepare for a moment like that?