A couple forced as teens to give up their triplet sons are on a quest to find them, with the help of social media sleuths. 
 
 Cynthia and Brian Bush got married and raised three more children after the 1972 adoption — but never stopped wondering about the three baby boys. 
 
 "It's a sense of giving me some closure," Cynthia Bush, 61, said of the search the family launched this month. "I've lived with this for so many years." 
 
 The Bushes' daughter, Christina Wilcox, is trying to help her parents be reunited with the triplets by posting details of the birth on Facebook — where it has been shared nearly 5,000 times. 
 
 Clues have started pouring in, and the family has already learned that while they thought the boys were adopted together, they actually may have gone to separate homes. 
 
 "It sounds corny but I always felt I've had something missing in my life and I wonder if that's what it is," Wilcox said. 
 
 Cynthia Bush was just 16 years old, living in upstate New York, when she became pregnant in 1971. Her parents were "appalled," she said, and sent her to stay with an aunt in Ashland, Kansas, until she gave birth. 
 
 "At that time, it was seen as kind of shameful for her to be pregnant at that age," Wilcox said. 
 
 An adoption through Catholic Charities was arranged, and a week after she had the babies on March 9, 1972, Bush returned home — where she eventually married Brian, a mechanic, and raised three more children. 
 
 "I've always wondered about them," she said of the first three babies. 
 
 At home, the adoption was a secret until a few years ago, when she told her younger kids about the long-ago trip to Kansas. 
 
 “ I felt if I couldn’t be with them, at least they could have each other.” 
 
 Wilcox, 36, said she did some searching on the Internet to see if she could identify her siblings but couldn't find any good leads. 
 
 Earlier this year, she called Catholic Charities and was told the agency could open the file, try to track down the adoptees and ask if they were interested in contact with their birth parents. 
 
 In the meantime, Wilcox said, they suggested social media might be a quicker way to get the word out. 
 
 She took a photo of herself holding a poster with basic information and posted it on her Facebook page. In the week since, she has heard from the daughter of the now-deceased doctor believed to have delivered the boys. 
 
 They also got a message from one of the nurses at the Dodge City hospital who dropped a bombshell. 
 
 The Bushes had always thought the three boys were adopted together. Cynthia said she insisted on it in writing. 
 
 "I felt if I couldn't be with them, at least they could have each other," she explained. 
 
 And for years after the adoption, a Kansas priest who was involved — but has since died — gave Bush's aunt updates on the boys, saying they were together and doing fine, Bush said. 
 
 But the nurse distinctly remembered that the babies were separated — which would make the search more complicated. 
 
 Cynthia Bush said her feelings about possibly finding the triplets are complicated, too. 
 
 "I just have mixed emotions about it," she said. "I'd like to find them, but I don't want to disrupt their lives completely if they don't know they are adopted." 
 
 Deborah Snapp, executive director of Catholic Charities of Southwest Kansas, said she could not discuss the Bush adoption or even confirm that her agency handled it. 
 
 After providing proof of identity, the parents can open a search for $150, plus an hourly fee for research and attempts to contact the children, who would now be 43 years old. 
 
 "More often than not, we're able to make contact," Snapp said. 
 
 Wilcox said that locating the boys and finding out about their lives would give their mother peace of mind after so many years of worry and shame. 
 
 "She thinks she did something wrong," she said. "But she didn't have a choice." ||||| A couple has launched a heartfelt appeal on social media in a bid to try and find the triplet sons they were forced to give up for adoption 43-years-ago. 
 
 Cynthia and Brian Bush gave up their three sons in 1972 after Cynthia fell pregnant as a teenager, but after going on to get married and raise three more children the couple have always wondered what happened to their triplets. 
 
 Now, with the help of daughter Christina Wilcox, the Bushes have started appealing for information about their sons by posting all the details they know about them on Facebook in the hope that someone who knows them will get in touch. 
 
 The Facebook appeal post, which has been shared more than 5,000 times, describes how the boys were given up for adoption through the Catholic Charities organisation. 
 
 Details known about the boys include that they were born on March 9, 1972 in Dodge City, Kansas and were delivered by a Dr Arnold Baum at the city's Trinity Hospital, what is not known is if they were kept together.
– Cynthia Bush says her parents were "appalled" when she became pregnant with triplets at 16 in 1971. They sent her from upstate New York to stay with an aunt in Kansas until she gave birth and adoptions were arranged through Catholic Charities. Bush eventually married the biological father of the babies and had three more children, but says she "always wondered about them." Now 61, Bush has embarked on a social media search to find the triplets she gave up, with help from her 36-year-old daughter. "It sounds corny but I always felt I've had something missing in my life," Christina Wilcox tells NBC News. "I wonder if that's what it is." A photo of Wilcox holding a poster with details of the triplets' births—including their March 9, 1972, birth date—has been shared some 5,000 times, and the story has gained international attention, as here at the UK's ITV News. Wilcox says several people who worked at Trinity Hospital in Dodge City have contacted her, including one nurse who thinks the triplets were separated. If so, that would have violated Bush's written preference that they be kept together. But complicating things is that a priest, since deceased, provided Bush's aunt with updates on the boys for years, telling her they were together and doing well. In addition to social media, the family has reached out to Catholic Charities for help finding the boys. "I'd like to find them, but I don't want to disrupt their lives completely if they don't know they are adopted," Bush says.