After 29 years, this mother hugs the daughter she gave up for adoption: "It was an indescribable emotion"
Giving a child up for adoption is a difficult and painful choice, which often leaves a void in the hearts of those who are forced to do this. This is what happened to Marie Fulmer, an American woman who gave up her child when she was 19 years old.
For 29 years, Marie - now married to Clark - had no contact with, or knowledge about, her daughter. She also kept this adoption secret from the family she built later in life.
via Metro
But one day in March 2018, Marie received a life-changing message: a woman named Ann Edwards wrote to her on Facebook, stating that she was looking for the biological mother of her daughter, Jamee. Jamee had found out she was adopted and wanted to meet her biological mother. Marie instantly recognized Jamee as being her daughter and was overcome with emotion.
Marie had given up her baby in December 1988: "I wasn't married and I wanted my baby to have a good life. I was too young and I wasn't ready to be a mother. It was the hardest choice of my life," Marie explained. Before handing her daughter over to her church's foster agency, Marie cradled her in her arms and wrote a letter to be given to child's future foster parents. "I felt immense love seeing my baby for the first time. I loved that little girl more than anything else in the world. I tried to make her understand and tell her why I had made this choice in my letter. I wrote to her that I loved her and this was why I had put her up for adoption".
In July 2018, Marie was finally able to meet Jamee and also get to meet her husband and her grandchildren. "When I heard the doorbell, my heart started pounding. I was so nervous and didn't know what awaited me. But it all went well and after so many years, it was wonderful to hold my daughter in my arms again", Marie recounted.
"I got all my kids together and said I had something to tell them. They did not know about Jamee and I had kept it a secret. But they were old enough to understand. I told them everything, from A to Z. I didn't know how they would react, but I told them that the next day, I would be meeting Jamee and her adoptive mother and that they could come with me if they wanted. They were very understanding and excited and wanted to meet their half-sister," she said. The two families met up in Utah in April 2018.
To this day both families have shared a special bond, thanks to everyone's love and understanding. Nice to read about a story with a happy ending, no?