Mom placed her son for adoption in hard times — 19 years later, they reunited by chance

Sometimes, parents facing overwhelming challenges make the difficult decision to place their children for adoption, believing it to be in the child’s best interest. Amanda Rector found herself in such a situation in 2004 when she gave birth to Hunter, as reported by TODAY. At the time, Rector was struggling with addiction and had already lost custody of her oldest son, Jameson. “When Hunter came out he was so uncomfortable, and my heart … I just shut down. I knew if I looked at him for too long, I would start to hurt, and I couldn’t feel that hurt,” Rector recalled.

When a nurse asked how she planned to care for her newborn, Rector had no answer. "I had nothing. And she was like, 'You know you're not going to be able to take this baby home,' and I said, 'I know,'" she explained.

Shortly after giving birth, Rector found herself back at the same hospital—this time because her boyfriend developed an abscess on his arm from heroin use. “We were waiting for a good two hours before it even occurred to me that I could go and see the baby. That’s how far gone I was,” she admitted. Realizing the weight of the moment, she headed to the nursery to see Hunter and asked the nurse if she could visit him.

“You could see she was heartbroken by the sight of me and the whole situation, and she was like, ‘Of course you can see him,’” Rector recalled. The moment was a poignant reminder of her struggles and the deep love she felt for her child, even amid her turmoil.

“All those feelings I had been bottling up cracked wide open,” she remarked. While Hunter was adopted by a family, the mom found herself in an armed robbery and found herself in prison. In prison, Rector found her faith in God and was determined to turn her life around. She started by joining a program and the choir there. She wrote a letter to Hunter’s adoptive dad but received no response. When the mom was released, she headed out to get custody of her son Jameson. Then one day, she spotted Hunter at a cancer fundraiser. “I grabbed Jameson’s hand and I was like, ‘That’s your brother!’” Rector exclaimed.

However, the mom chose not to greet her son and come forward because she believed “it wasn’t her place” to do so. Fourteen years later, Rector was at a Walmart when she noticed that a teenage girl was talking to her son Jameson. She asked him his name and when the boy responded, she pointed towards Hunter and said, "That's your brother." Hunter had already been looking out for his biological mother and knew their identities. The mom was anxious upon seeing her son wondering if he was "mad" and would "cuss" her out. However, to her disbelief, the boy stepped up and hugged his biological mom. Rector shared a post on Instagram writing, “Imagine wondering for 18 years if he hated you only to find out he saw it as an act of love.”

““I had just been talking about wanting to meet Amanda and then she appeared. If I wasn’t God-centered, I don’t believe any of this would have happened,” Hunter remarked. Though Hunter is still with his adoptive parents, he ensures he meets Rector once a week. The duo have reconciled and share a bond “like never before.”

This article originally appeared 6 months ago.