Novato woman abandoned in Muir Woods as infant relishing in new history, new hope on Mother’s Day

Mother's Day has been bittersweet for Lisa Olivera.

Twenty-eight years ago, she was an hours-old newborn when a picnicking family found her wrapped in a blue blanket behind a boulder in Muir Woods on Mother's Day.

Whisked away by an ambulance, the 7-plus-pound baby was perfectly healthy aside from a little sunburn on her feet. She was quickly put into the care of a loving foster family that within the year adopted her. She grew up in Novato with her two parents and older brother.

Yet for Olivera, her birthday and Mother's Day at times collided into a painful reminder that she had been abandoned. She yearned to know more about her origins. Seven years ago, while studying at Santa Rosa Junior College, Olivera shared in an essay published on the front page of The Press Democrat that the questions had grown unbearable. She told of a time during her adolescence when she lost the will to live.

'I took on the idea that I wasn't worth anything, and I don't know how that idea formed because I had all the love and support in the world,' said Olivera, who turns 28 today, in an interview. 'There was still something missing and I focused on that.'

But this Mother's Day will be different.

With a dose each of pluck and luck, Olivera has this year tracked down members of her biological family, including an older sister with whom she's quickly forged a deep friendship.

'When you're an adoptee, you always struggle with your identity and you are always looking for answers,' said Olivera's sister, Wendy Garrett, 28, of State College, Pa. 'It takes a certain amount of bravery to discover your true self. I didn't know what kind of answers I would get, but I knew I wanted them.'

Olivera and Garrett, who was adopted through an agency and grew up in Carmel, both had uploaded DNA samples into a genealogy database at Ancestry.com, with the hopes of learning more about their heritage. Garrett had been contacted by her biological mother in the past but hadn't been ready to respond.

On Feb. 5, Olivera logged on to the website with the intention of deleting her account.

She remembers the exact date because that is when she saw an alert that the site had identified someone in her immediate family. Olivera sent a quick message to this mystery person.

What she got back was a sister.

'Talking with her is the first time that I've known that someone understands what I've felt,' Olivera said.

'She sent me her picture, and it was almost like looking into a mirror,' Garrett said. 'That was crazy and magical and wonderful.'

The sisters have contacted a biological brother in Oakland. They reached out to their biological mother — together — by email and have begun a gentle and tentative conversation with her.

They have learned that their mother was young and experiencing hardship when she gave up her children. But other than that, Olivera and Garrett said they are happy to get to know one another, and their life stories, gradually.

'I couldn't have asked for a better gift,' Garrett said.

Talking to Olivera and Garrett is almost uncanny. Despite being raised by different people in different places, they share a similar poise in conversation, in addition to the same sweet lilt in their voices. Each says she is artistic in ways that stand apart from the family that raised her, and they have since learned their biological parents have artistic backgrounds. Olivera and Garrett both practice photography and play the banjo. They share the middle name Anne.

In finding one another, Olivera and Garrett both have said they filled what had felt like a massive hole in their lives, even though they have not yet met in person.

'We've formed this incredibly strong connection that I've never formed with anyone,' Olivera said. 'It feels like it was fate, and I've never believed in that kind of thing. But everything happened in the exact time that it was supposed to happen.'

In June, Olivera will fly to Wyoming to meet up with Garrett on a road trip to New Mexico, where she will start a graduate program in photography. The sisters will spend a week getting to know each other while camping in Yellowstone National Park.

Olivera said that the experience has ultimately shaped her life in a positive way. She is earning her master's in counseling psychology at Dominican University in San Rafael. She hopes to work with adopted youth.

And this year, when Olivera celebrates her birthday and Mother's Day in Novato with her family over brunch, she will not approach the day with any trepidation. She and her boyfriend will later drive to Muir Beach, a place that no longer represents the mystery of her origin.

'This year it feels completely different,' Olivera said. 'I feel like I'm going into this (holiday) having closure, having understanding of who I am and where I came from.'

(For an essay Lisa Olivera wrote recently about reconnecting with her biological relatives, click here.)

You can reach Staff Writer Julie Johnson at 521-5220 or julie.johnson@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @jjpressdem.