Tina Bejarano was 17 years old when she gave birth. According to Bejarano, her mother — who she has described as abusive — told her the baby had died just 15 minutes after being born. “It never made it. It was sick,” she was told.
She believed that for 29 years.
The truth was very different. Her baby had not died. He had been adopted — placed with a new family less than a week after birth, and raised in Las Vegas.
Decades later, Bejarano’s daughter encouraged her to take an at-home DNA test. Not long after, an email appeared in her inbox: “I think we need to talk, it says we’re related, and it says you’re my mom.”
The son she had been told was gone was very much alive — now 29 years old.
The families began talking. Bejarano’s husband, Eric Gardere, described the new relationship simply: “We’ve been communicating with Kristin for a few months now. He calls me ‘dad,’ I call him ‘son,’ I text him every morning.”
The two sides of the family planned to meet in person for the first time in Los Banos, California.
Source: KMPH-TV, Newsweek.
