To: eugene.johns@ejlawyers.com.au

From: alexandra.laird@metbank.com

Subject: Adoption certificate for Sophia Shu Bernfeld

Dear Mr Johns,

Thank you for your most recent email clarifying the final matters of probate.

I write today with some further questions regarding my mother’s adoption. You may recall we discussed this at Oma’s afternoon tea.

I used my mother’s passport and Australian adoption certificate to search for her Chinese birth certificate and adoption record, but there are no records in China matching this name.

My research reveals that adoptions could be an oral agreement, and sometimes no adoption certificates were issued in China. Instead, a notarial certificate was issued with the birth parents’ names, adoptive parents’ names, and date of adoption. You will note my mother’s certificate does not include the names of the natural parents. But the absence of a notarial certificate of abandonment from a police station suggests this was a mutually agreed adoption.

This is a rather sensitive matter and I do not wish to press my grandmother for details until I have further clarification, but I’m sure you will appreciate that the search for my mother’s birth parents has become hugely important for me. I believe my mother was also beginning to research the circumstances of her adoption before she died.

I am just writing to ask if you can recall any mention by my grandparents of police records or if there is any document you may have overlooked?

Sincerely,

Alexandra Laird