Well it is never easy to write about yourself.  I hope that I can keep it interesting for you!  I am very excited to create this website.  This week I began to envision a way to become acquainted with so many relatives.  A web site seemed to be a great place to start.  There is a lot I did not include here so as not to put you to sleep!

Part 1- The Early Years - Growing up in Hawaii

I was with the Adoption Agency (Child and Family Service (CFS)) for approximately 3 months after Dianne gave birth  to me. CFS placed with Marjorie Grace and Martin Irwin Rosenberg. Marty was a C.P.A. from New York City (the Bronx), and Marge has a Masters in Education from Texas Christian University. Marge grew up in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Her maiden name is Tallman.

I was very lucky to be placed with Marge and Marty. They fell in love with Hawaii while on honeymoon here and decided to move here in 1963. Marty established his own C.P.A. firm in downtown Honolulu and Marge taught at Iolani High School (note their website is down right now). They tried to have a child of their own, unsuccessfully, and decided to adopt. Within a week or two of my arrival, Marge conceived a boy. I grew up with a single sibling 1 year younger. His name is Joe and he is a C.P.A. and a Vet and lives in Scottsdale, Arizona where he works in Equine Veterinary Medicine.  Joe is very supportive of my search and is looking forward to speaking to those of you who  would like to meet him.  Just click on his name (underlined) to send him an email.

My first year was spent in a little rental unit in Manoa valley just up the street from the University of Hawaii.  Marge & Marty (M&M) bought a house in a little town 13 miles outside of Honolulu called Kailua (K-eye-lew-ah).  They picked their site well as it is now one of the more desired neighborhoods on the island.  Not ritzy or expensive (well everything is expensive) just a neat area and a block and a half from an excellent beach.

My brother and I grew up on that beach digging holes in the sand and bodysurfing.   I got sunburned quite often.  Most often we did not come into contact with the more hostile 'local' kids.  But once in awhile we would come home without a toy, having had it removed from our posession by the great children of 'coconut grove'.   When it became more apparent that we were going to face increased hostility the older we got my father enrolled us in Karate lessons.  Joe went all the way and got his black belt, I stopped at brown.

In addition to karate, I learned how to sail and spent a few summers at the local yacht club racing  FJ's, and Fireballs.  Marge and Marty were firm believers in us going to camp and I spent another couple of summers on a horse ranch in Waimanalo learning to ride and care for horses.

I went through the public school system through 7^th grade. Middle school was a little too dangerous, and the quality of education was poor. I interviewed and was accepted at Iolani Episcopalian High School. Iolani is an excellent school and I really appreciate the education I got there.

I had an interest in sports and starting playing soccer around age 12.  I was better with my hands than my feet (size 12.5) so I played the position of goalkeeper, all the way through college.

My career goal started around age 8. Marty had some clients that had airplanes and he saw that I got up in the air with them a couple of times.   I remember specifically going on a ski trip when I was about 10 years old.  We flew United Airlines to San Francisco and I knew that I wanted to be up front flying that airplane as we flew across the Pacific.

Part 2 - See ya Hawaii -  In which I leave Hawaii behind to pursue higher education. Get a job - get laid off and get the job back...

At the age of 16 I began to take flying lessons. I became heavily involved in an organization called ‘Civil Air Patrol’. That experience led to my enrolling in the Air Force ROTC program in college in hopes of becoming a fighter pilot for the military.

After high school I attended Colorado State University.  I needed to get away from Hawaii where I had developed a massive case of 'island fever'.  I always remembered the ski trips we took when we were young and so I headed to the only place on the continental U.S. which was familiar to me.  I enrolled as a Political Science student.  If ROTC didn't pan out I was going to become a lawer.

CSU was only 2 hours from the slopes and all the kids in the dormitories were natives who didn't hesitate to pack their cars up with their equipment and head for the slopes at the hint of powder. We spent a lot of time at Mary Jane and Whistler.  I managed to avoid serious injury somehow trying to keep up with kids who had been on skis since they were 2.  Amazingly enough I also avoided serious injury in another sport that I jumped into, racing motorcycles at Denver's Second Creek Raceway.

While at CSU I tried to gain pilot slots in both the Air Force and the Marines.  I joined the drill team, cleaned the football stadium with the corps, and learned military history.  In the summer of 1994 I went off to Quantico, Virginia for 6 weeks of Marine Corps Officer Candidate School (OCS).  That was the most intense physical and psychological ordeal I had ever faced.  I really loved it but did not love the hours.   3:30 a.m. wakeups were just a tad early.  After OCS I wandered back to college and slept through the next semester.

After 2-3 years of prep for the military, and going through Marine Corps OCS, I decided that Civil Aviation offered a lot more money with a lot less work.  I took a couple of years off from school and worked odd jobs, ending up as an Administrative Assistant to the President of RC Cola in Denver. My typing skills helped out here, I had taken typing as a summer school class in the 10th grade.

Denver is a great town, and I was busy chasing a girl  whom I had met while in school in Fort Collins (CSU).   Alas her parents were very religious and did not approve of our relationship.   I even ended up in Church for awhile in pursuit of this relationship.  The name of the church was Cherry Creek Presbyterian.  I remember the sermons more now than I remember the girl because they were given by celebrities.  You see Cherry Creek was the home of Dan Reeves, John Elway and the staff of the Broncos.  Every Sunday the minister would talk for half an hour, then Dan or John or one of the coaches would get up and tell stories.  I can still remember Dan Reeves comparing Jesus to a quarterback.  Great stuff.

When I realized that I needed to move on with my life I packed up my suitcase and headed back to college.  I took a few courses and delivered Pizza's.  I began to really concentrate on where my life was going to go next.  I still remember the moment that I figured it out.  It came out of the blue, while sitting at my desk looking at my bookcase.  I spied a book about learning to fly.  It hit me like a lightning bolt, where I would go, how I would do it, an amazing moment.   I was going to go to Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (Prescott, Arizona) and become a professional (civilian pilot).  It was one of those surreal events in your life where you see everything so clearly - like lightning had struck and cleared the fog from your brain. I couldn't wait to start.

I buckled down and attacked my schoolwork, hungry to finish my education and get to work flying. My GPA shot up from the uninspired "high two's"  to a 3.8.   I transferred my college credits ERAU, the best Aviation University in the country.

Eager to finish school I overloaded each trimester taking 24 credits and flying every chance I had.  I got a job at the flight line scheduling the aircraft with students.   Everytime there was a hole in the schedule I plugged my name in.  Most of my classmates had to stick around after graduation to finish their flight ratings but because I was agressive I was finished early and had a job lined up before I graduated. In 1991, I received my Certified Flight Instructor Certificate, and a B.S. in Aeronautical Science.

My new CFI ticket landed me a teaching job based in L.A. at  Santa Monica field.  I had a blast flying all around the L.A. Basin.  Again I was extremely lucky to end up at this field.  Most flight instructors around the country work for $8-10/hr.  But Santa Monica was different.  Kurt Russel flew out of the hanger next to our school.  Gene Hackman took lessons from one of our instructors.  In short, there was Hollywood money, and lots of it, pouring into this little airstrip.   After a year I started freelancing and made the incredible sum of $35/hr, unheard of for a CFI.

Around that time a childhood sweetheart was getting married up in San Francisco.   I flew up to watch her her nuptials at the Presidio.  A tall Norwegian woman sat in front of me at the wedding named Beda.  We ended up dancing together at the reception.

Beda lived in Seattle and I lived in L.A. but that didn't stop me from flying up north to visit her.  Soon she moved down to L.A. to be with me, then out to the Big Island of Hawaii when I got a job with a charter outfit there - Big Island Air. We were married in 1994.

While living in Kona I met a pilot who helped me get on with Aloha Airlines where I currently work as a pilot (First Officer) flying 737’s interisland.  I was hired there in 1995.

Aloha has a history of laying off pilots (furloughing) during slower times and I was laid off for 2 years starting in December of 1995. Shortly after my furlough Beda and I moved to Norway, then, after just one month, separated suddenly. We had been married about a year and one half. She did not want to live in Hawaii anymore and I was becoming attached to my job with Aloha. She decided to remain in her country of origin on a permanent basis.

After our split I traveled all around the U.S., and down to Cuba. I interviewed for a couple of airline jobs, but was really counting on Aloha removing me from furlough status.   It was a good enough job to wait for.  My divorce had hit me hard and I wasn't very motivated to find work.  I was looking for something but I did not know what for awhile. It didn't take me long to call a close friend, Karen Veteran.   I was sorry to hear that her marriage was at an end as well.  We came to provide support for each other during our divorces.

Karen and I begain to see each other quite often.  I was busy flying back and forth from Hawaii to Petaluma where she lived.  Karen did her undergrad at UCLA, and got her Masters at Boston College.  She is an MFCC (Marriage, Family, and Child Counselor) and had an established Private Practice of her own in Petaluma. 

Karen and I love for Sonoma County.  We took motorcycle rides all over the area, out to Bodega Bay, up to Calistoga to get mud baths.  And, of course, we spent time at Rodney Strong, Rabbit Ridge, and Korbel.

My computer skills were very strong.  My high school had advance placement courses in computing even in 1983.  I bought a PC in 1991 and immediately began to teach myself how to pull them apart and put them back together.   In 1995 I started my own home based business selling computers (PC's).  So when I found myselft having been furloughed from Aloha for an entire year with no end in site I called a friend in the business.  He was a Technical Consultant at Oracle Corparation.  I interviewed and landed a job in his division giving pre-sales Technical advice to customers and would be customers who were interested in getting information in and out of Oracle Databases.

Armed with a job and a new found sense of self esteem I began to look at why my divorce had hit me so hard.  Karen and I had long talks about the subject of abandonment, and I started to read stories of adoptees, reunions, and searches.   It took a long time, but Karen picked up a book for me while were in Mendocino one day called Primal Wound.  Saying that it was tough to read is a gross understatement.   But I couldn't ignore it.

In November of 1997 Aloha called.  They needed me back right away on a more permanent basis. It meant a paycut and less stability.  It also meant Karen had to make some hard choices.  My heart was in the 737 though, not in a fabric covered cubicle.  Karen made the agonizing decision to close her private practice and moved with me.  We packed up all our belongings and headed for the tropics.   Karen and I were married in two beautiful ceremonies one week apart in April of 1998.

Present Day In which you come to be reading this...

A few months ago Karen and Marge were looking through my baby pictures.  Karen's mouth hit the floor when she saw the letterhead from the adoption agency from which I was placed.  It was Child and Family Service, where she now works!  The next day at work she inquired into that branch of the agency (it is a very large non-profit with many arms).  As it turns out her supervisor used to work in that dept. and introduced her to the staff.  They told her about the records act of 1991 which opened up adoption records to searchees and birthfamilies who both agreed to it.

Dianne had set the stage for a reunion many years earlier by providing contact information with CFS should I start a search.  I drove down to the First Circuit Family Court and filed a motion to open my records.  I was prepared from my research.  Searches can take years, costs hundreds or thousands of dollars, and end with answers you might not have wanted to know.

I was shocked and pleased to receive a letter from Dianne on 12/21/98.  My wife and I were driving in the car when I opened a letter I assumed was from one of Karen's relatives.  When I realized what I was holding we both had to pull over before we hit another car!

Well that brings us to today.  I am looking forward to hearing from you.  By the way, a book, which is helping me right now, is entitled Birthright by Jean A.S. Strauss. Jean has about 200 pages on Reunions and what to expect which I am finding especially informative. Aloha!

-John