A man who was given up for adoption several decades earlier finally met his biological family, but there’s an interesting twist.
Until March 2015, adoption records for thousands of Ohio residents were sealed, meaning that people like Robert Allen Jr. couldn’t know who their biological family members were. Allen said, “I put it on Facebook that I was looking for my mother and father,” according to Fox-19. “That was about 1:00 p.m. By 9:00 p.m. I was talking to my sister.”
However, his sister, Sonya Jordan, said that the two had actually met before at a store Allen owns in Springdale, Ohio. Sonya and Robert’s biological mother shopped there from time to time.
“I was just amazed to know that he was that close and we didn’t even know,” she told WCPO.
“As soon as we found out I was talking to my sister, I just broke down in tears,” Allen added to WCPO. “It was the best feeling I ever had in my life… and I had a lot of ups, high points in my life, but this was absolutely the best feeling I ever had in my life – to finally meet my siblings.”
Allen was his birth mother’s sixth child. He was given up for adoption when he was 5 months old.
His sister, Stacy Baity, said she wasn’t sure it was him. “A lot of people play a lot of games so you’re not sure if he was actually so once he answered a lot of different questions I knew at that point he was for sure,” she told the station.
“We always knew that we had a brother out there,” said his biological brother, A.J. “We thank the Lord, we thank the Lord that he kept him, that he’s healthy and that he’s back with us.”
Allen, who said he knew he was adopted his whole life, said he had a good family life.
“I grew up with a good family and they took care of me and I grew up to be a good person, but still there was always a void and now that void has been filled,” said Robert.
He added that finding his biological family members makes his life complete.
“I was just amazed to know that he was that close and we didn’t even know,” Allen’s sister, Sonya Jordan, told WCPO.
Adoption Facts
According to the Adoption Network, some 428,000 children are in foster care across the United States, and about 135,000 are adopted each year.
Meanwhile, about 100 million Americans have “adoption in their immediate family,” it says.
“More than 60 percent of children in foster care spend two to five years in the system before being adopted. Almost 20 percent spend five or more years in foster care before being adopted. Some never get adopted,” it elaborated.
The network added that about 2 percent of Americans adopt, but more than a third have considered it.
“There are no national statistics on how many people are waiting to adopt, but experts estimate it is somewhere between one and two million couples. Every year there are about 1.3 million abortions. Only 4 percent of women with unwanted pregnancies place their children through adoption,” it says.
Actress Sandra Bullock spoke out about adoption. She’s adopted two children.
“[There are] Hundreds of thousands of children that are ready to be your child. You’re a forever parent the minute you accept the love of that child,” she said. “And it’s amazing to me how we can take away people’s happiness.”