Just imagine for a moment that you’ve been searching for years to find your biological family, without success, then all of a sudden, in your retirement you meet your long lost brother.
What words could express how you feel?
What would you do?
Would you have the same mannerisms?
Shelly Foster knew from a childhood age that had been adopted, but, she didn’t know from whom, until she had finished high school she didn’t the slightest idea what to do next in her life, at the time the military seemed like a good option.
Heading to her local U.S. Air Force recruitment she then saw, for the very first time, her birth certificate during enrollment.
She then learned her birth name as it was on her birth certificate, “Ruth Mary Anthes”, which made her bring into question many other things in her life that she didn’t really know anything about.
The next step then, once she took the decision to try to locate her birth family, was to begin the long, hard task of searching, times as they were made it difficult though.
Whenever she went to a new place she would head straight to the phone book, to lookup anyone with the last name “Anthes”.
Then the internet came along, and finally brought about some progress
… she found a match!
A bittersweet discovery came when she found her mother’s obituary, she had missed the chance to hug the woman who brought her into this life, BUT she was not alone, she had a half brother called Fredric Vanderwoude.
Shelly’s children came to her aid and found her brother living in Breckenridge, Texas. He agreed without hesitation to take a DNA test which gave a 100% biological match making it clear that they did share the same mother and father!
Shelly and her newly found brother talked on the phone, this was such an exciting time looking into the future, she had finally found her closest blood relation besides her parents, they decided to meet!
She spent 60 years searching for her biological family before she could be reunited, that moment she so desperately sought soon approached.
So, Shelly headed to Shreveport, Louisiana, where she finally got to meet her biological family.
The moment they met was completely breathtaking, Shelly told the NWF Daily News:
I looked into his eyes and saw me. We both had hazel eyes. He hugged me and said, ‘Where have you been all of my life?
Could you imagine that moment if it were you? What would you think, feel?