Giving up one’s children for adoption is never an easy thing to do, but things don’t always turn out the way you have planned them.
Kim Harris wanted nothing more than for her rather large, unconventional family to be happy, healthy, and well taken care of.
But after a few divorces and eight children to take care of already, she had to make a really tough decision. So when her newborn twins Dakota and Danielle turned 8 months old, she placed them up for adoption.
The mother wanted her babies to have the best life possible. Giving them up broke her heart, but she knew that opting for an open adoption will set them up with a family that will be able to provide for the twins in a way she never could.
Updates on Dakota and Danielle came regularly at first, but eventually fell through and she depended heavily on those updates. That is when one of Kim’s older children, Stephanie came in.
She searched through Facebook for her brother and sister, finding them eventually and striking up communication. Then, a day after the twins would have turned 18, Stephanie got news from her baby sister that they had a surprise for them, just didn’t know where to send it…
One road trip later, Kim’s front door rang with the surprise right out front – Dakota and Danielle were right outside to reunite with their biological mother, after 18 years apart. It was one of the happiest moments of Kim’s life.
Danielle and one of her biological sisters, Aly were even expecting their own babies at just around the same due date.
The whole family kept in touch after this reunion, up until the very last moments of Kim’s life. When she passed away from pancreatic cancer, it was the first time all of Kim’s 10 children would gather in the presence of their mother.
Though Kim’s life was bittersweet until the end, the moment she reconnected with her youngest babies was a moment of closure and pure bliss.