Samantha Thomas had given up on finding her birth parents. At 27, she decided to renew the search.

Adopted at birth, Samantha was raised in Tulsa with a sister. Her adopted parents were loving and she really thrived in her younger years.

Education was something that Samantha excelled at. She was the homecoming queen and the valedictorian. She went on to study Public Relations at Oklahoma State University.

She married and had two kids. She had everything she could want right?

Many people who are adopted have questions about their birth parents. Samantha was no different.

Many experts estimate that 65% of teens who are adopted really want to know who their birth parents are, or at least meet them at some point in life.

“My entire life I wanted to find my birth parents. I had already searched for them once when I was 18 years old with no success. Almost 10 years later I decided to try again.”

Samantha set out to search again and find these people who could mean so much to her. All she had to work with was a photo, blanket, and a letter from the adoption agency. These were left behind in case she tried to find her parents again.

But unfortunately, almost all of the information from the adoption agency had been either thrown out or destroyed due to time. It had been almost 30 years.

Her adoption papers were gone as well, and Samantha felt like there was no finding her birth parents at this stage.

“But realizing these gifts existed in the first place, that my birth parents had something they wanted me to have and to know about them, made me want to find them more than ever before.”

But when all hope seemed to be lost, Samantha struck gold. She gained access to her original birth certificate. This had an important name on it, “Valerie Lopez” her mother’s name.

So she set out searching for Valerie and knew from the birth certificate that Mrs. Lopez was 19 when she had Samantha. Slowly and surely, she narrowed down 10,000 results to three possibilities.

She took her findings and went straight to Facebook. She searched through the three profiles and found a woman who looked almost identical to herself. But at this point, She didn’t really know what to do or say! She just found her mom!

She was very thorough as she reached out. She called, left a voice-mail, and sent an e-mail that explained who she was.

The response wasn’t instant. Samantha waited four days before she heard back.

But she had contacted the right Valerie Lopez, and she responded:

“Please know the decision I made at 19 years old on January 5th, 1990, was the biggest mistake of my life. I am full of regret and that will never change. It would be an honor for me to hear more about you…”

The two shared contact information with each other and made plans to have a phone call.

Samantha heard the story of how her birth parents ended up getting married nearly four years after they put her up for adoption.

They also had a family. Which made Samantha’s discovery even better. Not only did she have three younger siblings, but they were fully her siblings!

She figured she would have a few half-siblings, but she didn’t expect her parents to marry. But they did!

The couple had recently divorced, but they had been happily married for so many years.

Samantha talked to her mother on a regular basis every day for almost a month.

“It almost felt like the first few weeks of dating. I was giddy when I saw a text from her and got antsy to hear her voice again.”

She also learned that her parents had not told anybody about her. Their families and children had no clue that Samantha even existed.

When Valerie called Samantha’s father, Eddy, he was overjoyed to talk to his oldest daughter.

Samantha was a bit overwhelmed by her father’s emotions when she called him. He was very intentional and said that he loved her even though he didn’t know her. But she felt like it was a bit too much early on.

She hadn’t been prepared for such an emotional reaction. However, Samantha and her dad worked through it one step at a time.

The two parents sat down with their children and shared a letter that Samantha had sent to them.

They hoped that the siblings would take it well, but the parents were nervous.

Thankfully, all the siblings were happy and excited to meet their new sister. So the family arranged to meet about a month later. Samantha brought her husband and two children along as well.

It was a scary experience, but as soon as she walked in the door Samantha was hugged lovingly by both parents. The families were joined with each other while love was abundant!

Definitely an emotional roller coaster for Samantha, but she had finally found what she wanted.

Now, she can say confidently that she’s glad she never gave up on the search.

“I not only gained a mom, dad, and siblings, but I gained an entire family who loves and accepts me and my family without reservation.”

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Source: Facebook, LoveWhatMatters, Unsplash, Shareably