The Desire to Know: Our Journey to Find My Mother’s Birth Parents

After growing up with no knowledge of her past or heritage, Cynthia Giger began the journey of searching for her birth mother the moment she turned eighteen in 1983. Fueled by the intense desire to know her birth mother’s story and to discover the identity of her birth father, Cynthia was determined to unearth what was so painstakingly hidden from her for her entire life, armed with nothing more than her birth mother’s name. Despite her peers’ pessimism and confusion as to why she clung to what seemed to be an impossible pursuit, Cynthia was not willing to give up, even when times were bleakest. This true story is written by author Michaela Riley Karr, Cynthia’s daughter, who joined her mother’s search in 2011. Now, in 2017, after thirty-four years of searching, Cynthia and Michaela’s search has come to an end by the grace of God. Following thousands of hours and hundreds of miles, this journey is a story of faith, endurance, loss, and of a mother and daughter becoming closer than ever before.