NOTES FROM UNDERGROUND

I have a different answer than a mix up by Catholic Charities. Anyone else have an idea what it is?

Adoption Mystery Binds seven Men

(Oct. 28, 2009) -- Ron Ryba was a high school football star when he gave up his newborn son for adoption in late 1975. A few weeks later, Phil Bloete was adopted by a New Jersey couple. When the 2 men finally met decades later, they thought their long search for answers was over. Instead, they have more questions than ever.

Phil Boete and Ron Ryba, who thought they were father and son, face frustration as they try to unravel an adoption mix-up mystery.

Ryba, a Cockeysville, Md., businessman, had wondered for decades what happened to the boy he and his high school sweetheart, Kathy Butler, turned over the Catholic Charities of Trenton, N.J.

"I wanted him to know that he was born out of love and I had given him up as a gift," Ryba said, who explained that he and the baby's 16-year-old mother decided their son deserved a better upbringing than they could provide.

The young couple eventually split up and married others. They have children of their own and, although they stay in touch, live separate lives, according to The Baltimore Sun. Over the years, Catholic Charities sent Ryba baby pictures and reports assuring him the child was doing well.

Ryba and Bloete, a high school English teacher, started writing to each other through Catholic Charities five years ago, when the younger man decided he was ready to meet his biological parents. In 2004, they went to a Philadelphia Phillies game and immediately bonded in what they thought was a long-awaited father-and-son reunion.

The 2 grew so close that Ryba decided to add Bloete to his will last year. The results of the DNA tests Ryba's lawyer required shocked everyone.

2 sets of tests showed there was "zero percent chance" Bloete was related to Ryba or Butler.
"Now I realize we don't know who or where our son is. And then I realize Phillip has no origins," Ryba said in a Baltimore Sun interview, recalling the moment the test results were confirmed.

"I am just looking into a little bit of history about where I came from, what my actual birthday is, and so far, I don't know," Bloete told ABC.

Both men feel let down by Catholic Charities, which has been unable to come up with any information to untangle the mess.

There could have been a mix-up at the hospital or at the agency, Catholic Charities of Trenton's Executive Director Francis Dolan said to ABC.

"It's a very frustrating situation. ... I share the frustration," Dolan added.

Ron Ryba and Phil Bloete are not father and son, but they are friends bound together by a heart-wrenching mystery. Where is Ron's son? Who are Phil's birth parents? They remain determined to find out.

"We'll just take this journey together; we'll do it together," Ryba said.

I'm sure people make mistakes like this all the time. It doesn't really matter, does it?

Oh jeeze, how do you mess something like that up?

The guy isn't related to either of them though. It said that.

OMG, zip, I just went back and CAREFULLY re-read the article. I'm blushing. I take back all the evil things I was thinking about Ms. Butler.