Stacey Faix was still a teenager when she became pregnant. When she gave birth to her son at just 15 years old, she was still a child herself and decided to place him for adoption.
After she gave birth, he was taken away, never to be seen again or so she thought.
In November 2017, a new law was passed in Pennsylvania allowing adoptees to access their original birth certificate. For Stephen Strawn, an adoptee, this was good news.
When Strawn heard about the new law, he knew he wanted his information. After a month, he had his birth certificate in hand, which included details that were previously lost.
(YouTube/Inside Edition)
“It was a big sigh of relief,” he told Inside Edition after he learned his biological mother’s name.
Strawn searched Facebook for the name, Stacey Faix. He was able to find her or at least someone he thought was her.
“I messaged her and said, ‘Hey, I have a really weird question,'” Strawn said. “I said, ‘Did you put a baby boy up for adoption in 1982?’ She said, ‘Yes.’ I said, ‘I think you may be my biological mom.’”
It turned out that Faix, who had attempted to find her son but was unsuccessful, and Strawn had a lot of things in common, even though they had not seen or spoken to each other in 35 years.
Although Faix lived in Ohio, she planned on running in the Pittsburgh Half Marathon as a member of Team Red, White, and Blue (RWB), an organization that Strawn was also a member of where he lived in Pennsylvania. Strawn was also scheduled to participate in the same race.
(YouTube/Thomas Faix Jr)
On race day, Strawn came up with a plan that was worth the wait.
As members of Team RWB gathered before the race, someone handed Faix a card. The card read: “It’s been 13,075 days since you last saw me. I didn’t want you to wait one more day.”
Her mouth dropped.
“We must have hugged about ten times,” Strawn said. “We finish hugging, we look at each other and then we hug again. It just felt really surreal that it was finally happening because it happened so fast.”
The mother and son duo completed the marathon as a team, presumably catching up on all the time they’ve both missed out on.
LOVE — that this young mom went ahead with her pregnancy — LOVE that she gave her son to a loving family who wanted to adopt and share their LOVE — LOVE that they got to meet again.
