My name is Susie - I am a 41-year-old adoptee. I have known that I was adopted since I was a little girl. I use to dream about who my mother and father were, what they looked like and do I resemble each of them. I would take a long look in the mirror when I got older to admire my looks, breathing it in for each of them, since they were not around to see the beautiful girl I had become.

I was contacted by my half sister Sarah last November of 2002. She told me my mother's name was Cathee Dahmen, and had become one of the top Supermodels of the 60's and 70's. She was on the cover of several top Magazines, Vogue, Harpers Bazaar and several other International magazines. She moved out East shortly after her mother took me away from her at the age of 17. She ended up becoming a very successful model and earned millions. She married Leonard Whiting who was the original Romeo, in the '67 movie Romeo and Juliet, and then married Alan Merrill who was in the band the Arrows. I am so proud that she became something of herself; she grew in so many ways because of our split. She died in 1997 and I did not get to meet her again, but I have been told by several close friends and family members that I was a very unresolved chord in her life. I don't think she ever was complete, but I think she is now.

Everyone called me Cricket when I was little - I lived with my mother for almost a year, then shortly before I turned 1, my grandmother adopted me out without Cathee's consent.

I have met my father's side of the family - and adore them all! I know who my father was, and he glows inside my heart. I am home after 41 years!! (But without Mom or Dad.)

© 2003