Christmas promises to be hectic but happy for Myra Krafft. There will be laughter, presents, and a Christmas Day feast with partner Edi Murat and children Nicholas, 9, and Ameli, 8.
There's just one shadow – her failure to trace her biological mother. She says Christmas can can make adoptees and relinquishing parents feel "part of their family is missing".
Telling her story in The Sunday Age in 1996 didn't result in her mother coming forward, but attitudes can change, and so with fragile hope, Ms Krafft, now 44, of Traralgon, is making another request.
From her birth certificate and adoption records, Ms Krafft knows she was born at 3.35am on July 22, 1972, at Royal Women's Hospital in Carlton.
Her birth name was "baby Kellar"; the mother (who can't be named due to privacy law) was 22 years old, Australian born, Catholic, and sharing a flat in Dow Street, Port Melbourne. She worked as a receptionist, was 5 feet 4 inches tall (162 centimetres), slim, and had achieved her school Leaving Certificate.
The baby's father was 25 years old, a hairdresser, 6 feet 2 inches tall (188 centimetres), of medium build with fair hair and blue eyes.
Ms Krafft spent years searching public records, without success. She even doorknocked the block of flats. She suspects some, or all, details were false – for example, no females were born in Victoria on her mother's stated birthday in 1949.
As a teenager, Ms Krafft was judgmental. She was shocked that her mother was unmarried; she had had a fantasy of a nuclear family, waiting for her.
Three years ago, Ms Krafft founded support groups in Traralgon – for post-adoption support organisation VANISH – for both adoptees and relinquishing mothers.
Hearing their stories, and having children, made her realise how hard it must have been for her mother to give her up.
Ms Krafft grew up in a loving family near Geelong, and thinks it was the right choice.
But she yearns to know more, such as where her small hands and headstrong nature come from.
She says: "The face value of my life has been great but it has still been filled with a lot of emptiness and sadness, because I haven't had that connection and knowing her.
"I always live in hope that maybe somebody will come forward with some kind of information for me. That would be my Christmas wish, I guess."
Charlotte Smith, manager of VANISH, said Christmas can be a "trigger" for distress among people affected by adoption.
A review of the Adoption Act 1984 is under way and VANISH recommended that post-adoption services be included in the Act, such as assistance with search and contact, support for complex family relationships, and counselling.
Anyone needing help contact VANISH on 1300 826 474, or for information about Myra Krafft contact The Age, carolynwebb@fairfaxmedia.com.au