Son surprises his biological mom at marathon 35 years after being put up for adoption

Editor's note: This article was originally published on July 8, 2021. It has since been updated. 

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 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.

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 ran 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 start of what will be a beautiful relationship. Both their families grew that day as they decided to keep in touch. “It’s something you see in the movies,” Stephen said. “Everything was perfect.” When one of his biological sisters graduated college, he and his wife headed back to Pittsburgh to celebrate the occasion. He also planned on having his new family over in Ohio for a summer cookout as well. When their heartwarming story went viral Stephan said in a Facebook post: Makes me feel so good from the outpour of support and kind words from everyone! It’s a great feeling knowing there is such a large support group surrounding us and people can see the good in our hearts!