Finding Purpose

Dr. David Yoder discovered throughout his education he wanted to be a Doctor to help those in need. Dr. Yoder invites you to begin your journey back to health with David Yoder Wellness Center. Connect with Dr. Yoder at https://www.dhirubhai.net/in/david-yoder-93b2b71a/

----------------------------

"The two most important days in your life are the day you were born, and the day you find out why."

- Mark Twain

What is your earliest childhood memory? Unfortunately, I cannot remember anything earlier than about three years old. The beginning of my life was a mixture of confusion, worry, doubt, uncertainty and anxiety. I was lived in a foster home until I was adopted when I was 8 months.

The family that ended up adopting me were two very adventurous outgoing parents who had a child of their own but desired to have another child. I believe my first childhood memory was sitting in the sun outside in nature in South America, Bolivia. A change of events occurred during my dad's career in Bolivia and my parents ended up rescue adopting 2 twin babies, their mother had died during the labor.

After successful paperwork with the local Bolivian government we relocated to the metro Detroit Michigan. This part of my childhood was filled with more mixed emotions. I began to question and wonder why I was adopted what events led to me being left by my birthparents.

Unfortunately, in 1970's California had a closed adoption policy so no information could be provided that would help an individual relocate or track down their birth parents. Ironically my twin sisters had all the information they could ever wish for.

One day in elementary school during "show and tell" I decided to make myself be the "show and tell" and I was quite embarrassed to realize that not many other children knew what it was to be adopted that's when I began to feel uniquely different and isolated in my childhood. My twin sisters would often give me a guilt trip for why I would ask into my birth story compared to theirs like I wasn't thankful for what had happened. I soon realized that it would be quite pointless to get my hopes lifted up knowing that I couldn't really fulfill my desires to find out anything more about my birth background and history.

I didn't have many friends growing up in middle school and high school. I was very introverted and different than my other friends. I turned my focus towards becoming a good student. 

So much so, later in my second year into college I was offered full ride scholarship by the NIH to go to medical school and research. I felt as if my prayers have been answered this is everything I could hope for, the scholarship would take care of my education and my living expenses for the next eight years or more. A major factor why I was offered this scholarship was due to the combination of my academic performance and being an Asian minority.

About a year into the scholarship I started to ask questions about the philosophy of healing and medicine. I felt there was more than just treating symptoms with medications.

I read a book by Deepak Chopra titled "Quantum Healing" and learned there is a whole different philosophy of health; a "vitalistic" model compared to the "mechanistic " model that just assumes that we are just a bunch of parts and cells that can be manipulated treated or medicated and that there is no spirit or soul that exists inside.

For no known reason this invoked and awoken something deep inside of me that part of me that was still searching for an answer of why I was born what my purpose was and how I could find my birth mother. I decided to give up the full ride scholarship and pursue an alternative path. All of my family and friends thought I was crazy for giving up such a perfect opportunity, they didn't understand why I had to leave Michigan and go to California and pursue a path that had no certainty.

But what also gave me a re-direction was a chiropractor, Dr. Karl Johnson. He was a kind and generous mentor who took me in that summer and shared a different philosophy of health and healing. He also treated some physical ailments I had been suffering with since childhood.

Basically, in about nine months I had better vision, I grew taller, my immune system was stronger and my chronic neck and shoulder tension was gone! All without any special medications or invasive procedures. The only treatment was spinal correction. This outcome confirmed inside of me and also released an inner energy source that encouraged me to continue on my journey towards California.

Before I left I began reading more self-help books to find out more about how I could awake my intuition and fulfill my desires to find my purpose. One of my first books that inspired me was "Chicken Soup for the Soul". This book was filled with many true-life stories of people that had overcome all odds and found their peace and happiness in life. Another book was "The Celestine Prophecy". What I got from reading this book was that there are no chance meetings in life and everything has purpose. The third book that was instrumental was "Jumping Mouse: A Story About Inner Trust". It was a Native American story to teach the younger generations how to learn to trust in others.

I finally arrived safely in California on my way to a chiropractic college program in the San Francisco Bay Area. I was accepted to the Chiropractic college program which would take another four years to complete and included a final exam that was broken down into four parts over 2 years.

In between classes I would try to find time to search for my birth mom. It was 1998, before the Internet was established or before Google was really known for its search tools. I had no name, phone number, or photograph. The only information I had was that my parents were of Thai descent and in good health and they were very young when they had me. I tried contacting some private investigators and they said without any information it would be next to impossible. Out of desperation, I even tried contacting Oprah Winfrey to see if she could help since I knew she had a soft spot for family reunions.

Time slipped by quickly during college and I had forgotten about the tips and insights that I learned about in my self-help books. So, I realized it was time to start put them to the test!

One thing I knew is that my family was from Thailand but the closest association I could find about Thai people, was to hang out and try Thai food at the many local restaurants in the Bay Area. During one meal, I made an astute observation that I rarely ever saw Thai people eating at Thai restaurants. So, I decided to ask the waitress why that was so?

She politely informed me that most Thai people eat food that is much spicier and different than what they serve at the local restaurants.

So, I logically asked where would I find authentic Thai food. That eventually lead into her telling me that most Thai people practice Buddhism and attend the local Buddhist temples on Sundays. I also learned from her that there was a local Buddhist temple less than 1 mile from where I was renting as a student.

Excited yet uncertain what would happen next, I decided to make my way to the Buddhist Thai temple in hopes of meeting somebody that might have a piece of information to help me with my reconnection to my birth mother. As I knocked on the front door of the Buddhist temple I realized while waiting for the door to open that if they only spoke a Thai language, I would be at a loss since I only knew English.

To my surprise the young man that answered the door was a tall Caucasian looking student who spoke perfect English and invited me inside the temple; (apparently, the monks decided to take in this young man to help them learn his way and this was a very rare circumstance that they allowed this to happen.) I was just relieved that he spoke perfect English and introduced me to the head Monk, Maha Prassart.

Within a very short moment after sharing the little information I had about my birth story the monk Maha Prassart started nodded his head carefully and said that he knew my birth mother! Apparently, he had been in the bay area since 1969 and since I was born in 1970 he knew the local Thai people at that time of my birth including her. This meeting lead to a series of other meetings which brought me to another older Thai Mother that had my mother’s photograph and address in Bangkok Thailand. When she handed me my mother’s address she said that I could not contact her because she didn't know if she ever told anybody about my birth since this was a very secret situation.

Apparently, my birth mother was not supposed to get pregnant and leave college and so her family was very upset at her actions. No one except my birth mom knew that I was born. I was moments from reuniting with my her yet very confuse how I could take the next step and carefully make this a favorable outcome. I decided to head back to the Buddhist Thai temple to learn the culture and use meditation as a doorway into their world. If one has ever tried meditation it is truly a very difficult task to learn to quiet the mind. Yet I knew somehow that if I could clear my thoughts and find a clear peaceful mind state, God might give me a way to contact with my birth mother.

After dedicating a few months of learning how to meditate after class during sunset meditation I achieved my goal. Usually the meditation will proceed as follows; The Monks would chant for about 30 minutes followed by 30 more minutes of silence of meditation. It would end by 7 o’clock. I would return home and get ready for the next day of school.

On this special meditation when I open my eyes and looked at my watch and it said it was past 9 PM! During my meditation, I traveled out of my body across the ocean towards my birth mom and let her know that I was trying to contact her but wanted to let her know that I had no anger or guilt but was just trying to reconnect and start a new beginning. I felt as if she had saw and listen to my request and was open to beginning a new relationship.

So, I took pen to paper and wrote an old-fashioned letter and sent it to the address given to media simply stated that my name was David Yoder I was born September 9, 1970 Berkeley California and I was out here in California attending chiropractic college and was hoping to connect to my birth family I was told that some Thai people were at the Thai Buddhist monastery that knew of other people that might still be in the area that could help me reconnect. And that your name and address was given to me as one of the people that might know about my story.

I asked her if she knew about my story and if she did if she could kindly write back to me and provide any information about details That could help me reconnect with my birth mother; so basically, I left it up to her at this point to make a decision.

It takes about a week for a letter to arrive to Thailand through regular mail and a week later I received a letter from the address provided. in the first sentence it read, "Dear David, from the information you have provided, I am your birth mother". I knew instantly that my wish had been fulfilled and a piece of my heart was healed that once was lost.

I felt powerful that I somehow had manifested this outcome and I decided It was also time to meet my future soulmate. On a meditative walk on the beach, I decided to ask God if he could bring me a special person to share my life with me. Within that same month I ended up meeting my future wife.

After graduation we moved to San Diego and started our family. My wife gave birth to our son Noah, April 12, 2007. My son is now 10 years of age. Last year I asked Noah if he remembers his birth? he said that he remembered. So, I challenged him and asked him to describe what he saw and felt? He described being inside my wife and inside he was floating and he saw the colors red and orange and heard mommy's heartbeat. Then during the excitement of being pushed out during labor he said he saw me first when he opened his eyes he said I looked blurry?

Noah does not know yet from science and biology that a newborn's vision is blurry for about a week. From these details as you can see clearly, I feel that my son has distinct memory of his birth moment where I did not. Noah's birth is my "coming full circle " and realizing that my new purpose has been found!

Which is to be the best father and husband and healer that I can be to my family and my community.

Thank you for Reading with your eyes and listening with your heart to my story. I hope this awakens something in you and inspires some hope for your story.