It's not me, but my mum was adopted at a very young age, she is about to turn 40 next week, and she found her biological mother about 10 (i think 10) years ago.

We have talked about it, so I can tell you a few things, but I can call her and ask her more if you'd like?

I know she tried to contact her biological mother some time before then, when she turned 18, but her mother declined. Her parents (adoptive parents) helped her a lot by telling her the orphanage they adopted her from, and some other things they knew, and she contacted the BDM department in NSW (she state she was adopted from) and they gave her the places she needed to contact, and it was a big cycle apparently, a lot of explaining and being shuffled from one organisation to another trying to find her biological mother.

She tried again about 10 years ago, but she had a lot of the info she needed from the first time she tried, and she met her biological mother. They don't keep in contact, they are two very different people. But she met her biological siblings (through her biological mother) which she speaks to every now and then.

Good luck Like I said, I can ask her more if you like?