Today, Gallery of Diamonds is a jewelry store with much meaning for thousands of families, whose purpose is to offer a magical and memorable mother and child experience for every contest winner.

The Why Mom Deserves a Diamond® contest is the largest mother's appreciation contest in the United States, receiving nearly 20,000 essays each year. Every single essay is read and evaluated by Orange County teachers.

Watson is a member of the American Adoption Congress and is a GIA gemologist. He is the Co-President of the GIA Orange County Alumni Association, an advocate of adoption reform, and the author of Adopted Like Me.

The wonderful consequence of my lifelong quest has been the Why Mom Deserves a Diamond® contest. With the help of my family and staff, it has strengthened the bonds between countless children and their mothers across the country.

Since the inception of the contest, (nearly 250,000) kids have expressed their words of love for their moms. The contest has reached millions, and everyone it has touched has benefited. The chain reaction is wonderful; when we know we are loved, we learn to love ourselves. When we love ourselves, it is easier to love others. When we love others, our world becomes our safe and beautiful home.

From Adopted Like Me- Chosen to Search for a Birthmother. ©2002 Michael C. Watson.

In 1975, Watson was 17 years old. Although he loved his adoptive parents, he wanted to know the truth of his birth origins. He began a journey to search for his birthmother that would last nearly twenty years.

He was hired by a local diamond merchant and simply swept the wooden floors of the small store and delivered repairs to the goldsmith across the town. He would be handed a paper bag and told never to open it. He never dreamed of the precious jewels it contained!

I had my driver’s license now.  I was free.  I had kept the adoption records that Mom had given me as a child.  The address rang in my head -- 2115 North Delaware.   I vowed to myself that I must go there.

What would I do after I arrived?  What if my birthmother was still living there?  What would I say, “Hi, Mom, I’m home?”  Could I ever address her with such a sacred title that I had only vocalized to the woman who nurtured me ever since I was three days old? 

The fear of the adventure almost became too great for me.   Mom was not prepared when I told her my decision.  I really do not think she could understand why anyone would want to seek answers to such questions if they had wonderful adoptive parents.

From Adopted Like Me- Chosen to Search for a Birthmother. ©2002 Michael C. Watson.

Since Watson had taken guitar lessons since age seven, he later gave lessons to other aspiring musicians. This helped him earned a business degree from Indiana University. He studied art, marketing, and consumer behavior. He also continued his birth quest, making many trips to the town he was born.

Miraculously, I found the North Delaware sign and slowly crept through the calm street lined with large old houses and leafy trees on either side. It looked like a dilapidated neighborhood that probably was a very nice place back in 1958. I saw 2111, 2113, and...nothing. There was no house at 2115! It was a vacant lot. I backed up to see if I missed something, but there was no such address. After curbing the Biscayne, I sauntered to where the house was supposed to be. The early morning air whisked by coolly on my bare arms. I saw only damp and warped wooden boards that lay criss-cross where a house used to be.

From Adopted Like Me- Chosen to Search for a Birthmother. ©2002 Michael C. Watson.

Watson moved to Southern California in 1989 and founded Gallery of Diamonds in 1991. Watson purchased parcels of beautiful diamonds, then hired master diamond setters to mount them, eliminating the cost of the middleman. To this day, Gallery of Diamonds offers fine jewelry at much less than the cost of most jewelry stores who do not manufacture their own jewelry.

Fifteen years had passed without learning a trace of his biological origins. His birthday and Mother's Day were joyous, but they also triggered thoughts of his birthmother.

I re-dialed the number, including the last digit. The faint ring came from a planet outside my familiar solar system. An elderly lady answered. “Hello. Is this Hattie Stewart?”

“Yes.” I was thrilled and terrified on hearing the voice of another human being that shared my DNA.

“My name is Michael Watson. I’m calling you from California. Was your daughter’s name Betty, who got married to a Floyd Price?” I already knew those answers, but I wanted to interject something personal, something that only a friend or relative could know, something that would arrest her attention before she slammed the receiver in my ear.

“Mrs. Stewart, I don’t know how to tell you this, but your daughter, Betty, is my birthmother. I was adopted in 1958 after I was born in Community Hospital in Indianapolis.” Although I wanted to scream that sentence, I restrained myself.

From Adopted Like Me- Chosen to Search for a Birthmother. ©2002 Michael C. Watson.

Watson became more skilled in music composition, writing jingles for local businesses and performing in local bands at night while helping jewelry clients by day. He relocated to Kansas to manage the diamond company's premier branch.

The first negative encounter I remembered as a result of being adopted was when I was seven. A little girl who lived down the hill exclaimed in a hateful voice, “I know something you don’t know...you’re adopted! Although that was a familiar word, I wasn’t fond of the tone.

“So what?” I fired back.

“Your mom is not your real mother.”

Lost for words, I scampered back up the hill to ask Mom what was so bad about being adopted. Noticing my confusion, she reassured me that adoption was not bad, but beautiful. She even gave me the correct comeback words to say if I was ever challenged with that question again.

The next day I saw the girl again. When she brought up the same subject, I had Mom’s words memorized: “I might be adopted, but at least I was picked out special and your parents had to take what they could get!” The girl ran into her house crying. She never confronted me with that issue again.

From Adopted Like Me- Chosen to Search for a Birthmother. ©2002 Michael C. Watson.

In 1993, Watson established the Why Mom Deserves a Diamond® contest to allow kids to express their love and appreciation for their mothers. One essay sparkled deep within the humble pile of essays on Watson's desk, thus was declared the first Diamond Winner.

Shortly afterwards, Watson finally found his biological family. His birth mother had already died years ago. However, he joyously met his biological grandmother, aunts and uncles, two brothers and a sister! He learned that one's true mother is one who gives caring instruction and gently guides our footsteps in life. To Michael, that was his adoptive mother, Martha.

Tires slowly crackled over the driveway’s dry limestone gravel. ...I rushed outside, standing defenselessly in the center of the yard. I peered into each of the car’s windows. There were six passengers, four in one car and two in the other. They were also staring at me. I realized I was standing alone and felt naked. My mind was dazed, but I believe the first person out of the car was Grandmother. She approached me with opened arms, calling me grandson.

Behind Grandmother came a younger woman with coarse, brown hair, with somewhat the same texture as my own. She lacked any trace of a smile and approached me as if I were an unknown animal species. She firmly squeezed my hands and peered deep into my eyes, studying me with scientific curiosity. The woman was Mary Jane, Aunt Mary Jane. I yearned for similarity as I beheld my birthmother’s younger sister.

I was dizzily transported back to that unremembered time of my birth. I felt I was dreaming, but the cool, refreshing grasp of her hands in the blistering September sun was real.

From Adopted Like Me- Chosen to Search for a Birthmother. ©2002 Michael C. Watson.

In 1980, Watson was hired as a diamond merchant for a jeweler in Louisville, Kentucky, becoming absorbed in the magical world of diamonds. He continued to search for his identity, and made a lifelong vow to find the woman who gave birth to him.

I parked where 2115 used to be. The trees were gruesome without leaves.

I knocked on a familiar door. This time somebody was home. I introduced myself to an elderly lady, who promptly departed inside to get her husband. The couple must have felt my sincerity, for they escorted me inside to a dusty davenport patterned with large paisleys where I sat and sank halfway. The old man’s forehead wrinkled... After a few moments he started crying, then composed himself and told this story:

“I once had a good friend who was adopted,” he began, wiping a tear with a faded handkerchief that he fetched from his front pocket. “He didn’t know that fact until he was about your age, when he found the documents between the pages of the family’s old Bible. He became furious at his parents for not telling him, packed his belongings, and vowed never to return. The biggest tragedy was when he found his real mother a few miles away...”

From Adopted Like Me- Chosen to Search for a Birthmother. ©2002 Michael C. Watson.

Michael Watson was born in 1958 in Indianapolis, Indiana and was adopted by loving parents when he was three days old. He spent most of his childhood in New Albany, a small town that overlooked the neighboring city of Louisville from the Ohio river.

I always knew I was adopted.  That was never a secret. Mom used to call me her little adopted angel.  I felt special because I was chosen.  Dad told me that they picked me from a large room filled with cribs of babies.  After seeing me in the middle of the room, he said, “I’ll take that curly-headed one over there!”

From Adopted Like Me- Chosen to Search for a Birthmother. ©2002 Michael C. Watson.