An 80-year-old woman let out a stunned scream while stocking her fridge, as her biological son, who she gave up for adoption as a baby, surprised her after 50 years apart.
Benjamin Gibbs, 50, from Indiana, never knew his birth mom, Anna Matson, 80, growing up.
Anna put Benjamin up for adoption as a baby. After his adopted family all passed away within a year of each other in the early 00s, Benjamin was the only one left in his immediate family.
But when Benjamin started to look into his backstory, his daughter hired a private detective to search for his birth parents, with the only fact Ben had being that he was born in South Bend, Indiana.
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Within a few months, Ben received the news that his birth mom, Anna, had been found, and when he received photos of her, the resemblance was undeniable, his daughter Tiera said.
The day before Mother’s Day 2024, Ben called Anna to introduce himself, explaining who he was and that he didn’t want anything from her, only to talk and ask if she was willing to meet.
That call came off the back of a few failed attempts where Anna thought Ben might be a scammer, but this time, Tiera said, the 80-year-old was shocked but accepting, talking to Benjamin regularly from then on.
The 50-year-old heard how Anna was a single mother when he was born; that he had an older sister and younger brother; and that his mom had made the difficult decision to put him up for adoption because she felt another family could provide what she couldn’t at the time.
Then, a few months later, Benjamin worked with his sister to plan a surprise first meeting with his mother, which he decided to do over the holidays as a Christmas miracle.
Having travelled to New Mexico, Benjamin snuck into Anna’s home on Christmas Day, walking up behind his birth mom as she was stocking her fridge.
When Anna turned around, she let out a huge scream in shock, before heading in to give her son an emotional hug that both had waited more than half a century for.
Tiera later shared a video of the moment on social media and said that her dad plans to attend a reunion to meet his extended family.
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She said: “Grandma Anna, a single mother when my dad was born, always had another child.
“She made the difficult decision to give him up for adoption because she felt another family could offer him what she couldn’t at the time.
“She prayed about it and wished for him to go to a loving family, especially a Christ filled one.
“That’s exactly what happened. I cried.
“I know what it’s like to finally find a part of you that was missing for so long.
“Even though he is 50, I felt like I was watching a small boy embrace his mom for the first time.”
