A Wish for Ashley

Dear Friend,

My friends always tell me I should write a book because of all the crazy experiences my family has shared.  In theory I agree with them, but in practice I've never known where to start.  This is not my book; in fact, it may just end up being fodder for another chapter in that 'someday-I'll-write-it' autobiography.   However, it is a start, which I can only hope will bring me the happy ending of finding Ashley.

I have a feeling that the people who initially see this- the people who know me personally- will probably think I've gone crazy.  I'm not an outgoing person or a very 'get-in-my-business' type.  In fact, for much of my childhood my family called me a mute because of my complete dislike for speaking and sharing of myself.  However, I hope that those people I know, and those of you who stumble upon this site and don't know me, will come to understand that I am fully aware that this is a crazy idea.  Because if you can understand that, you can appreciate how important is it to me, to my mom, to my siblings and to my late Uncle Will that we find Ashley.

Why 'A Wish for Ashley'?  Well, because long before Will was diagnosed with cancer, long before he made his wish, I have been searching for my cousin.  I've done public records searches, google searches, facebook searches, I even created a dummy account to do sketchy Myspace searches... and in ten years I have not found anything remotely promising.  Since Will and Ashley's birth mom signed over their parental rights, and my mom (as her biological aunt) has no legal claim to her, we are not getting very far with state agencies.  The last time we saw Ashley was in 1995 and she was in the Massachusetts foster care system.  Now she would be 21, free of the system, and she could be anywhere.

Ashley is a very common name.  Based on the number of google and facebook hits, Ashley Marie apparently is too.  I'm assuming Ashley has a different last name now because of the lack of luck I have had searching her birth name, so the commonality of 'Ashley' and 'Ashley Marie' has been the greatest challenge in finding my cousin.  However if my Uncle Will has taught me anything, it is to use challenges to your advantage: to make you stronger, to make you a better person.  The idea for this website was inspired by his example, so I want to turn the challenge of there being so many Ashleys out there into an advantage in getting the word out about one Ashley:  Ashley Marie McFarland.

I know it's a crazy idea, but my family thrives on crazy- hey, it's better than being ordinary.  I don't expect you to believe this approach will be successful, but I hope you believe that it could be if people like you get every Ashley you know to this website.

Regardless of your level of skepticism, I'll periodically keep you updated on how the search progresses until the day our wish for Ashley is granted. Fingers crossed.

With love (and totally out-of-character optimism),

Audra



This was my very first post to Granting the Wish- the A Wish for Ashley search update blog.