In spring 2010, when Youxue (her Chinese name) was a high school sophomore in Dallas, Texas, she decided to start searching for her birth parents. She knew it wouldn’t be easy. Given the international nature of her adoption and the under-the-table circumstances in which most Chinese children were relinquished, there was a strong likelihood she would never find them. But her adoptive mother was supportive and found a “searcher” through Yahoo groups, one of the first forums where adoptees connected online. In China, the searcher plastered posters of Youxue and her information in high-traffic areas of Ma’Anshan, in Anhui Province, and went to the police station that was listed in Youxue’s certification of abandonment. There, the searcher was able to access records and find a short note that Youxue had apparently been left with.