Stranger Reunites Mother and Son on Facebook
Another remarkable birthmother search story!
“A mother has been reunited with the child she put up for adoption more than two decades ago thanks to Facebook.
Cherie Alvis, 39, from Lufkin, Texas, decided to launch an appeal for her long-lost son via the social networking site on June 3 – the day of his 22nd birthday.
Four days after posting a photograph of her newborn along with a heartfelt plea, she told KLTV that a message popped up on her timeline reading: ‘Here I am Mom’.
Clark Alldridge, whose birth name was Joseph Edward Saenz, said he was alerted to the post by a ‘complete stranger’ called Sherry Riley.
She heard about Ms Alvis’ story through Facebook and, with time to spare, decided to do some detective work of her own. She spent hours attempting to match birth dates with state records.
She finally managed to pinpoint Clark’s Facebook account and pointed him in the direction of his biological mom’s. When he looked on her wall and saw the photograph of himself as a baby he instantly posted a reply.
After striking up conversation via email, he traveled two hours from Houston to meet Ms Alvis for the first time this past Saturday. He said that he has known he was adopted all his life.
‘It’s like 22 years later you meet your mom,’ he said. ‘It’s like the most amazing thing in the world really.’
Meanwhile Ms Alvis captioned a picture of the mother-son reunion on Facebook with the words: ‘I am so glad he’s home!! I can’t stop staring at him.’
She gave birth to Clark at the Mainland Medical Center in Texas City when she was 17 years old. He was her second child.
For four months she tried to look after him the best she could, but with no fixed accommodation it proved a struggle.
Often she was forced to sit in the hospital lobby just to keep his milk bottles warm. It was in December 1991 when his health deteriorated that she decided to look into adoption.
‘It was the hardest decision I have ever made in my life,’ she explained
It was something I did not want to do but it was either give my son life with someone else, another family that could take care of him and actually give him an opportunity in life, or to let him die in my arms with me.’
That Christmas, Clark’s adoptive parents sent Ms Alvis a photo of him with the message ‘our best Christmas present’ scrawled on the back.
She said the gesture helped steady her emotions.
‘I think that they must be really wonderful people to be able to do that for me 22 years ago and I can’t thank God enough for them.’
Clark also has an adopted sister and said that his parents have been ‘great’ in supporting him in everything he’s done.
Ms Alvis says she doesn’t want to take anything away from Clark’s mom and dad and hopes they can form a relationship.
‘I gave his parents a gift and 22 years later they gave me a gift back and that is a wonderful, wonderful young man,’ she added.
Clark says that he has come to terms with his adoption and he admires his mother’s bravery.
‘She basically had to have another family keep me alive and I’m proud of her for that,’ he said.
‘I feel like everybody has to make hard choices at one point and some are harder than others . . . ‘I love her and I don’t even know her.’
He plans on getting to know his birth mother as much as possible, along with his blood brother and sister.
Ms Riley, who put the duo in touch, added: ‘I just feel like we have a need in all of us as parents to know that our kids are okay and I was really, really happy to do that for Cherie and for Clark.’
[Daily Mail 6/12/13 by Sadie Whitelocks]
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