world smaller and the same tools you used to reconnect, apparently they were helping adopted children who are now adults reconnect with their biological roots. cnn s julie peterson has one woman s story. my dad, my mom, my sister. reporter: it happened 19 years ago in a restaurant parking lot. you can see the cracker barrel in the back. that s when as an infant she was presented to her adopted parents. that s when i started my real life, a family that loved me, wanted me, and a family that actually fought to fight me, get me. reporter: now a freshman in college maura knows she s always been adopted but still she wanted to find her biological roots. at first her adopted mother was skeptical, but after going to an adoption support group with maura, marsha stevenson came around. her birth mother gave her life and i feel like i gave her
love, and i thank her every day of my life. maura was able to quickly connect with a family tree using the names and dates from her adoption paperwork. she went to two social networking websites? they re all linked together. the woman was the same age as my birth mother, the father was the same age as my the person who signed as my birth father, and then they had the two boys in between them. so that s how we kind of connected everything together. reporter: maura learned she has two older brothers. she reached out to the brothers who told maura they remember their mother being pregnant. she said the birth mother doesn t want to be connected. she made her profile private. i never befriended her because i have a mother and father that i consider my mom and dad. it didn t matter as much to me as finding my brothers. reporter: adoption expert say there are dangers for adoptive
children searching for their birth family. it can be a huge shock and everyone involved needs to be sensitive. that can be a silver lining. if an adopted parent can really support their child in the search what ends up happening is the child is even closer to them. reporter: maura says finding her two brothers is a thrill. one, it helped her resolve a life-long history. when i found out i m scottish and irish, it explained the blond hair. my brother has blond hair and blewish green eyes just like me. i d like to know where i come from. reporter: maura hopes the time will be right to meet the woman who gave her life. she has a message fehr her berth mother. thank you for giving me up for adoption and not giving me up for abortion and that i ve had a good life. reporter: julie peterson, cnn. this weekend i talked with two adoption experts and the