When teenage mothers give birth to their children at a very young age,
they are not always ready neither mentally, nor financially to take care of the little ones. Their bundles of joy are often given up for adoption and end up with new families. This was the case with Stacey Faix who had given birth at the age of 15, some 35 years ago.
Stacey Faix had to make a very difficult decision at the age of 15.
The teen found out that she was pregnant. She gave birth to a baby boy and put him up for adoption because she was not ready to take on the responsibility of being a mom yet. Though her life would never be the same again, it moved on. The baby was adopted and was named Stephen Strawn. From Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Stephen went on to live with his new family in Ohio. He grew up and went on to serve in the U.S. Military.
Over the years, Stephen tried to trace his birth mother but always hit a dead end with no results.
According to ABC News, his birth records were lost in a flood. This made it even more difficult to be able to find her. However, in November 2017, a new law came into effect that allowed adoptees to request their birth certificates come with the original birth parents on them. This finally allowed Stephen to piece things together and help find his biological mother. He then managed to locate her and the following morning he made contact.
Once he got the documents into his hands and finally learned his biological mother’s name, he could finally start the search. He told Inside Edition that “It was a big sigh of relief.”
The first thing he did was to try and find her on Facebook.
I guess that’s one of the greatest benefits of social networking sites, that you can get in touch with people who are long lost. Once he found a woman with that name, he sent her a message, saying, “Hey, I have a really weird question. Did you put a baby boy up for adoption in 1982?” The answer he got was the one he was anticipating to hear for so long. He then proceeded saying, “I think you may be my biological mom.”
A video of the reunion was uploaded on YouTube and it is a tearjerker.
Stephen made an elaborate plan to surprise his biological mother. He saw that Faix was a member of Pittsburgh’s Team Red, White, and Blue (RWB) chapter, which supports veterans. As a veteran himself, who is part of the Ohio chapter, he got in touch with the Pittsburgh chapter’s president to arrange the reunion. He learned that there was a marathon and that Faix would be running in it. “All the support is incredible,” he said. His biological sisters also pitched in to set up the surprise reunion.
In the video, we can see that someone delivers Faix a letter and clear out space around her.
She is puzzled as rips the letter open to read it. Stephen had written a letter to her and in it had mentioned how they had not seen each other in 13,075 days. He was hiding in a portable bathroom all this time until his wife would give him the all-clear signal. The content of the letter left Faix bewildered as she looked around for the son she had given away 35 years ago. When Faix turned around, there he was. She ran over to embrace her son.
The reunion was emotional and it would not be an exaggeration to say there was not a single dry eye in that park.
“They didn’t want me to hold him, they didn’t recommend it,” Faix recalled about the time she had given birth to Stephen. “So I finally got to hold him.” In Stephen’s words, everyone did an “ugly cry.” After the teary reunion, the mother and son together in the half marathon. Later, they went to have a cookout where they continued to “ugly cry” and caught up with each other. “For the parents, who had to give up their children for whatever reason, don’t lose hope,” Faix said.
This is the beginning of what will be a beautiful relationship.
Both of their families were growing up on that day when they decided to stay in touch. “That’s what you see in the movies,” Stephen said. “Everything is perfect.” When one of his biological sisters graduated from college, he and his wife returned to Pittsburgh to celebrate the occasion. He also planned to bring his new family to Ohio for the summer cooking. As their touching story went viral, Stephan said in a Facebook post: “It makes me feel so good to have everyone’s support and kind words! It’s such a great feeling to know there’s such a great support group around us and that everyone can see the good in our hearts!
Source:boreddaddy.com, scoop.upworthy.com
