I took this book on a relatively short business flight, from Los Angeles to San Francisco, thinking that it would keep me occupied round-trip. I wish I'd also taken Musser's "To Prison With Love" because I ended up finishing "I Would Have Searched Forever" before we even landed in San Francisco! It was a fascinating read. I especially recommend this book to adoptees who may be in the midst of a reunion, or planning a reunion, with their families. I have been reunited a little over a year now with my mom and the rest of my natural family and I still have trouble sometimes understanding the circumstances surrounding my mom's surrender of the right to raise me. However, there was much societal pressure in the 50s and 60s for young mothers to give their children to the infertile to raise; that pressure still exists in many adoption arenas today. Sandy Musser not only explains the social conditions that led to the surrender of her first daughter but also the love that she continues to feel for her oldest child. Although she is truly the mother of her daughter, she sometimes underestimates herself as a mother. I imagine that the adoption industry rhetoric, of telling her that she's less than a mother for not raising her first child, has taken a toll on her. Through telling her story, however, she has educated many mothers and allowed them to mourn the loss of raising their children. I was also deeply moved