Anna's point of view

I agree - I remember outfits from that age - special toys - I remember words that I used for things because I couldn't properly pronounce the correct word - a lot of visuals of the house I lived in and my kindergarten classroom and teacher. Maybe a special name for a special toy?

I think Anna had a pretty amazing adventurous life on the farm and travelling in the school bus. The outdoor freedom, the trees, lots of land, the outhouse experience she may recall. Anna was in a play at a young age, she drew pictures and knew LOLOLOL... I think she does remember certain things for sure. Again, we need a billboard or small local TV station to at least start a blurb for Anna. I feel we need the media to help us. Is there a local TV station in the San Mateo area?

I agree local media would help, and often you get better results from requests like these if it is a small station. I think she would remember the "outhouse". We had one when my lil sis was around that age and she still recalls it. But all children are different, and different things lock and unlock their minds. My son was very young (4) when he lost his father. He can't remember him at all, the grief counselor I took him to when he was small told me this may happen. Trauma often blocks the mind of a child...the thing is hitting on memories that can unblock it. I can start telling my son a story about things they did, and all of a sudden, he can remember that incident.
So yes, by all means, the outhouse, the chicken coop,her favorite outfit, her favorite color, the date Jan. 16, does she feel lost? Things she shared with her brothers...talk to them, brother and sister secrets stay strong...

I think one of the other important factors is for it to be unique. For example, one of my grandmothers made a potato salad that had beets in it that I loved. I called it "pink stuff". I don't know of anyone else with that association and it does trigger memories of her house and family gatherings.

In my continued stream of consciousness today . . .
It seems like the bus trip with her family might be a very powerful and unique experience. Annasmom - have you ever written a detailed story about it and published or posted it with pictures? It seems like she might be attracted to the story and reading it might trigger memories.

I just read the oddest story, on another site, it was written by the daughter in law of a man who is searching for his real family. He remembers vividly the day he was taken at age 5, and is searching now for his mother. His story made me stop and think.....sometimes traumatic events, cause a child to remember the day......every detail....so maybe she remembers way more than I was giving her credit for.....I hope she finds her way back to you soon.......

Just random thoughts....... was there a rose bush,screened or glassed in porch, a "secret" hiding spot, lilacs, old foundations, baby chicks, a favorite pet dying, craft projects, certain songbirds, a litter of kittens or puppies, house color (if notable), a room of a certain unusual color or wallpaper, outdoor family activities (picking blue berries, raspberries, black berries), riding on a tractor or lawnmower, a neighborhood bee keeper, baby calves, a special quilt or comforter...like i said just random thoughts

iNTERESTEDWOMAN said:

I have always wondered if Anna would remember her mother playing the piano. I wonder if she would have been drawn to playing because of memories she might have had of her mother playing. Can't get that thought out of my mind...

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~~ I have wondered this for years. The piano.
Did Anna play as well? I did searches for pianist/age/classical once... I'll do it again.

Annasmom said:

Why haven't we thought of this before? We tried to see what members remembered from when they were five years old. I would expect her to remember "Joka", Saturn, maybe my given nickname and her brothers' names. Any other ideas? I don't remember how to add tag words.

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Apologies for starting a topic and then disappearing for a month. (Life getting in the way is a poor excuse, but there it is.) I have, however, been chewing this over in my mind.

Annasmom, is there a way (I suppose your webmaster for Anna's page will know) of getting some of the things that Anna might remember to bring up Anna's page if they are put into a search engine? I don't even know how to phrase it really, but I mean whatever it is that brings hits when you put it into a search engine. Whenever I want to have a look at Anna's page to see if there are any updates, I google "Anna Christian Waters". However, if Anna's name was changed after she was snatched, even if only her surname was changed, and she forgot/repressed it, she probably won't be googling the name, but perhaps something that you mentioned, like her brothers' names/nicknames,* perhaps a special name she may have had for you or a special pet-name you had for her, 'Joka', names of pets, her favourite piano tune, any childhood words (you know how children sometimes invent words for things, or mispronounce them, and then the whole family starts using them), random memories like apple trees, gathering eggs, the chicken coop, kindergarten-related stuff. If she googled, say, "my dog Saturn small brown dog" or "my dog Saturn brown terrier" (this is just an example, I've no idea if Saturn was small, brown, or a terrier), is there any way those words/phrases could be linked with Anna's website so it would come up as one of the hits? Perhaps with a photo here and there where applicable (maybe of the dog) so she would have a look and perhaps think, hang on, could this missing girl Anna be me?

Also, and this is complete and utter lottery, suppose the people who abducted her gave her a new date of birth, and symbolically chose 01-16? Is there any way of checking if there are birth certificates out there issued for that date for female children of Anna's age? Birth certs not issued at birth, I mean? (Sorry if this is mega-confusing. Do you guys know what I mean?)

*I don't know different people might feel about their names/nicknames being out there on the internet.

I don't post here often, but check all the time for updates. I was placed with a foster family when I was 3 1/2 and adopted at 5, but I have MANY memories of life with my natural family-both good and bad memories. As an adult, I was able to find my natural family and pieces together my memory puzzle, w/ the help of my natural mother and siblings. I am guessing that Anna also has many memories, and perhaps does not know how to piece them together.

Many of the memories I have a rather random: I remembered going to the beach all the time (we lived across the street from Laguna Beach, but my adopted parents did not even know I had lived in CA). I remembered sitting with my natural brother on a bed, and him telling me not to put my finger in an electrical socket or the witch would zap me. I remembered the smell of orange blossom trees (my natural grandmother lived next to an orange grove in Costa Mesa-we lived with her a short time). I grew up in PA and NY, so had no occasion to smell orange blossoms until we moved to AZ! The first time I smelled them as an adult, memories came flooding back!

Many of the memories I have a rather random: I remembered going to the beach all the time (we lived across the street from Laguna Beach, but my adopted parents did not even know I had lived in CA). I remembered sitting with my natural brother on a bed, and him telling me not to put my finger in an electrical socket or the witch would zap me. I remembered the smell of orange blossom trees (my natural grandmother lived next to an orange grove in Costa Mesa-we lived with her a short time). I grew up in PA and NY, so had no occasion to smell orange blossoms until we moved to AZ! The first time I smelled them as an adult, memories came flooding back![/QUOTE]

~~ Well well, there ya go! Awesome to kow it is possible to have memories from way back when and without photos. Thank you. Hope you have closure in your life now with your natural family.

Thanks Julessleuther!

Favorite smells might be something to discuss then. I don't recall any discussion on what types of smells Anna might remember, other than the obvious, the farm animals.

What kind of foods she might remember smelling, especially if they were favorites. Any blossoms she might remember.....

Every Thursday or so, Anna would come over for supper. I would make liver and onions and BACON! She was the only person on the farm who would eat that with me. Perhaps the scent of bacon cooking might be a trigger for her to remember good times on the farm?

Also, there was the day that Joe Ford beheaded a dozen or so young roosters for the freezer for future chicken stews, and the kids ran around squealing, and the air was permeated with the smell of wet feathers...

Anna loved my worms and would help me count them. There is a special earthy smell in worm bedding...

The chicken coop was a world of its own, full of unique sounds and smells...

HTH

I don't know if this has already been suggested in another thread, but what about posting on adoption reunion sites? Is it possible that Anna was told she was adopted, and at some point in her adulthood she would try to search for her bioparents? I don't know if she knew her birthday or not, but you could search some of the sites by birthdate. A girl who was adopted as an older child around 5 would stand out from those who were adopted as babies.

Irish_Eyes said:

I don't know if this has already been suggested in another thread, but what about posting on adoption reunion sites? Is it possible that Anna was told she was adopted, and at some point in her adulthood she would try to search for her bioparents? I don't know if she knew her birthday or not, but you could search some of the sites by birthdate. A girl who was adopted as an older child around 5 would stand out from those who were adopted as babies.

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a few adoption sites she is listed on i have a listing for her on http://www.adopteeconnect.com/ i have her info posted up plus a website and emails for 2 people who are the ones the info should be send to should anyone feel they are anna

In my musings - I am thinking that she would likely have no pictures of herself as a child before age 5. I am not sure how we could capitalize on this, but it just seems like there would be a noticeable gap. Even though I don't remember, I have seen plenty of pictures of myself before age 5 with family around and places that I remember from later visits as a child.

ndivine said:

In my musings - I am thinking that she would likely have no pictures of herself as a child before age 5. I am not sure how we could capitalize on this, but it just seems like there would be a noticeable gap. Even though I don't remember, I have seen plenty of pictures of myself before age 5 with family around and places that I remember from later visits as a child.

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or the family could have had pictures of another child that had the same hair color as anna and said this was you when you were younger.

i often think about annas last time at the farm before she vanished, and other missing children/teens adults, what are they thinking how do they feel when someone just comes and snatches them away. if they are young children and the kidnapper(s) save them to give to another family how do they feel if they are old enough to remember who they really are. i think if it was me i would be sad for a really long time but if i was old enough to remember things that dont jive i would find a teacher a neighbor even at the age of 5-6 to say hey these are not my real parents.

i know at the age of 4-5 i was really bright for my age. ( i struggled a lot in school all my life) but at the age of 4 1/2 i could read a whole little golden book and a dr suese book from front to back without any mistakes

I think there are many possibilities for what Anna remembers or doesn't. Given 39 years of being unable to find her, the assumption has to be that, if she is alive, she either doesn't remember or chooses not to be found for whatever reasons. I am working with doesn't remember because if she doesn't want to be found, I'm not sure that there is anything we can do. If she was abducted, we can't know what she may have been told so that she would not say things to people about her other family and memories of a different place.

ndivine said:

I think there are many possibilities for what Anna remembers or doesn't. Given 39 years of being unable to find her, the assumption has to be that, if she is alive, she either doesn't remember or chooses not to be found for whatever reasons. I am working with doesn't remember because if she doesn't want to be found, I'm not sure that there is anything we can do. If she was abducted, we can't know what she may have been told so that she would not say things to people about her other family and memories of a different place.

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~ Thanks ndivine,

Unless, she wasn't told she was abducted but rather adopted and if she was told her natural parents were bla bla bla.... there sometimes comes a point in one's life when they need to research the bla bla bla and find out for themselves if whatever they were told is either true or false or a totally different story.

Being involved in adoption on a personal level, I find alot of adoptee's will further investigate their past in order to come full circle.

I would like to think that if Anna were told her natural parents were xyz.... how does one just leave it at that and comfortably go on with life? I was hoping that if Anna became pregnant this would spark interest in her own past.

Most adoptees today are informed of their adoption. An illegal adoption? I am not sure if they are just told it was an adoption. Either way, there should be room to be inquisitive.

I've heard of people remembering being born. I've also heard of a toddler remembering getting circumcised and when his mother took him to the doctor, he freaked out and told her it was the doctor who cut him. Though, I don't know how much of that is true.
Interesting forum here: http://www.thescienceforum.com/behavior-psychology/17329-how-far-back-can-you-remember.html