Happy Monday! See Saints Social networking can be used for Good… Not always evil. Check this story out.
HOUSTON – In 1981, Jutta Fairley was 19-years-old, pregnant and living at home in Germany with her parents.
Unwed and scared, Fairley hid her pregnancy for seven months. When her parents finally learned of her condition, they gave her two options: move out or give the baby up for adoption. Fairley delivered, then said goodbye to a tiny little boy, but she never stopped yearning for her firstborn.
Now, 29 years later, dressed in a black dress and heels, Fairley spent 5 hours standing outside Bush Intercontinental Airport’s Terminal E.
“I’m nauseous,” she said.
Six weeks ago, the little boy she said goodbye to in her native Germany contacted her on Facebook. His name is Daniel. He’s married, and has two children of his own. Daniel Schneider flew to Texas on Tuesday to meet his birth mother in person. Every second she waited outside that gate seemed like an eternity.
“I hope they don’t have me waiting so much longer,” said Fairley. “I’m gonna lose it.”
Now 48-years-old, Fairley herself is married. As she waited for her firstborn to clear customs, she talked of how she met her current husband, a military man from New Orleans, while he was stationed in Germany. Fairley moved to Louisiana and started a new family. Daniel Schneider has three half siblings. Two of them waited excitedly with their mom for his arrival.
Hurricane Katrina forced the Fairley family to relocate to Texas in 2005. Through it all, her move to the United States, raising a family and surviving a hurricane, Fairley never stopped thinking about the child she left behind. Then Facebook happened.
When a stranger’s face popped up on her account requesting to be “a friend,” Fairley somehow knew the person on her computer screen wasn’t a stranger.
“Normally you ignore them if you don’t know them, or you don’t have friends in common,” she said. “(But) something just told me, just check on this. Something is not right. So I sent him a message (asking) ‘do I know you?’ And he sent me a message back. (It said) not necessarily, but I was born on September 3, 1981, and my mother’s name was Jutta.”
It’s been six weeks, but Fairley still cries when she thinks about it. Within minutes, those tears turned into a mix of excitement, anxiety and nervousness – an emotional rollercoaster for woman who was moments away from meeting her child.
“I’m gonna run and slip and fall,” she predicted.
By this time, Fairley and Schneider’s half siblings had been waiting in the airport for more than 4 hours.
Then, another delay.
A federal agent walked out of the gate and headed straight toward Fairley. Daniel Schneider had landed, but he couldn’t provide the U.S. Customs Service with a phone number for the place he was scheduled to stay. After straightening out some missing information, the story of a long lost reunion about to happen even touched a man in uniform.
The agent held up Schneider’s German passport.
“You know what he looks like, right?” he asked.
A smiling Fairley could barely respond.
“Kinda,” she said. “Well, I got his picture.”
And then, with a grin as big as could be, the customs agent opened the passport to give Fairley a peek and reassured her everything was in order.
“At least now I know a couple more minutes and he’s here,” she said.
With her daughter jumping up and down and her son scouting the glass doors for the best possible view, Fairley fought a cigarette craving.
And then, after three decades apart, with an ocean separating them, and another five hours spent waiting inside Terminal E, Fairley burst into a sprint – heels and all.
“Daniel!” she cried. “Oh my God. Oh God, I love you.”
There was no hesitation in his voice.
“I love you too, Mom.”
