Samantha Thomas finally found out her birth mother’s name after nearly a decade trying to find out her identity. She then reached out to the woman, only to receive an email that would cause her to weep.

Image: Instagram/lifelatelyblog / Life Lately — Image: Instagram/lifelatelyblog/Life Lately

Samantha Thomas spent her whole life wondering who her birth parents were. With a court order, she was able unseal her birth certificate at age 27, and finally learned her mother’s name, Valerie Lopez. Then, she began to search for her – until she received an email that made her break down in tears.

Cynthia and Richard Powell adopted Thomas, and she grew up in Tulsa, Oklahoma, alongside her younger sister, Marisa. Thomas thrived in her high school years, earning the title of homecoming queen and valedictorian. She was also involved with the football team and student council.

After graduation, Thomas went on to study public relations at Oklahoma State University. She then put her degree to good use working for an Owasso, Oklahoma-based restaurant group. But when she and her husband, Trent, became parents to a son, Luke, and a daughter, Lyla, she traded in her job for full-time motherhood.

Becoming a mother reignited Thomas’s search for her own biological parents. She had tried once to learn more about them when she turned 18 but found nothing. So, nearly ten years later, she gave it another go.

Right away, Thomas found out new information about her biological parents. It turns out that they had left a blanket, photo and letter behind for the baby they gave away. Unfortunately, she also came to learn that the letter and photo were destroyed, along with all of the adoption attorney’s files, just months before she began her search.

Thomas told website Love What Matters, “The 18-year-old me would’ve considered it fate and moved on. But the 27-year-old me is different – I am a wife and a mother of two now. I know the love a mother has for her child. Knowing that the letter from my parents and the picture of my beautiful birth mom was forever lost was a hard blow.”

However, Thomas added that “realizing these gifts existed in the first place, that my birth parents had wanted something they wanted me to have and to know about them, made me want to find them more than ever before.” Fortunately, the amateur sleuth had one more option.

Thomas would have to ask a judge to unseal her birth certificate, which would reveal her mother’s name. Luckily, the plan went off without a hitch. “Without even stepping foot in the courtroom the judge signed off on my request. An hour later, I had my birth certificate in hand,” she recalled.

Thomas’ mother’s name was Valerie Lopez. At that point, the amateur detective combined it with the information her adoptive parents had about her biological ones. The Powells knew her birth father’s name was Eddy, and that both he and Lopez were from Chicago. So, she headed to the White Pages to try and find someone with her mom’s name in the Windy City. She came up with pages of candidates.

With time, though, Thomas narrowed down the results to three potential Lopezes. She then used Facebook to research each of the three women, landing on one with “similarities [that] were incredible,” Thomas wrote. She added, “I was doing my best to keep my emotions at bay, but it was so hard.”

In spite of their visual similarities, Thomas still had to speak to the woman in the Facebook photos to see if she was, indeed, her birth mother. The mom-of-two called her and left a voicemail message. Then, she sent an email with a little bit more information about her adoption and life afterward.

Thomas finished her message with a final plea to the woman who potentially brought her into the world. “If you are my birth mother, I would like very much to be in touch and meet you whenever you are ready. I won’t contact you unless you’re agreeable but knowing you would mean so much to me.” She signed the letter, “Your daughter, Samantha.”

From there, the 27-year-old just had to play the waiting game. Thomas said she “was religiously checking [her] phone by day and tossing and turning in bed by night.” The mom-of-two was anxious because her message meant she had put herself out there. “Up until sending that email I was safe. But afterward I was vulnerable,” she wrote.

Thomas spent four long days wondering whether she’d be “accepted… or rejected” by the woman on Facebook. Then, her phone buzzed with the receipt of a new email from one Valerie Lopez. And, in her first two sentences, Lopez would finally reveal the truth about Thomas’s past.

“Thank you for reaching out to me,” Lopez’s message began. “I am your birth mother. As I read through your email, it brought me to happy tears, sad tears and tears of amazement all at the same time. You did very well for yourself and it’s great to hear,” she confirmed.

But that wasn’t all that Lopez had to say. She went on, “Please know the decision I made at 19 years old on January 5th, 1990, was the biggest mistake of my life. I am full of regret and that will never change. It would be an honor for me to hear more about you and I want to share with you anything you need as well.”

The confirmation, understandably, brought Thomas to tears instantly. “I wept until I had no tears left. I mean, I ugly cried. Sitting in the front seat of my car with no tissues; I was shaking and overwhelmed with relief, joy, and fear,” she wrote.

Image: Samantha Thomas via Love What Matters

But there was little for Thomas to be afraid of. It turned out that her biological father, Eddy, had been searching for her as well, but had no success. When Lopez told him the news, “he cried buckets of tears. They were tears of joy and tears of sadness all in one,” the 27-year-old wrote.

Image: Samantha Thomas via Love What Matters

Thomas also found out she had three younger siblings – Alex, Bri and Neeko. She met all of them on September 2, 2017, when she flew from Oklahoma to her biological family’s home in Illinois. Then, she hugged each member of her family for the first time. “The rest of that weekend, and the trips that followed, are a dream,” Thomas wrote.

Now, Thomas has strong bonds with her biological parents and siblings. “I gained an entire family who love and accept me and my family without reservation,” she wrote. The 27-year-old, who continues to chronicle her adoption journey and growing relationship with her family on her own blog, Life Lately, added, “My heart is so full.”