A 27 year-old woman from Allentown, Pennsylvania has not only forgiven the mother who abandoned her at birth, but is now welcoming her into her life and calling the reunion “pure joy.”
The Associated Press is reporting that Katheryn Deprill, who is now known as the Burger King Baby, has a peculiar claim to fame. She was abandoned in the restroom of a Burger King restaurant twenty seven years ago by a 17 year-old mother who became pregnant after being raped. The frightened teen hid the pregnancy from her parents and gave birth in her bedroom. Afraid to take it to a hospital, she decided to take the baby some place where it was sure to be found – the rest room of a local Burger King. She kissed the baby on the forehead and then left.
Deprill was not only found, but was blessed with adoptive parents who gave her a wonderful life. Now working as an EMT and a married mother of three, she decided the time had come to try to find her birth mother.
Her search began on March 2 when she posted a photo of herself on Facebook holding a sign that read: Looking for my birth mother. She abandoned me in the Burger King bathroom only hours old, Allentown, PA. Please help me find her by sharing my post.”
The photo was shared more than 30,000 times by users around the world.
It also caught the eye of the one person she most wanted to see it – her mother.
The frightened teen who kissed her goodbye 27 years ago heard the news that her long-lost daughter was searching for her and went to attorney John Waldron who arranged a meeting.
The first moment Deprill saw her mother was described as “pure joy.”
“It looked like I was looking in a mirror,” she said about the striking resemblance she bears to her mother.
“I got the hug that I had wanted for the last 27 years, and that broke the ice,” she said. “I asked if I could have it, and she said, ‘absolutely,’ and just held her arms open, and the rest is history.”
The pair met for about four hours that day and exchanged contact information. Deprill also learned the whole story about why her mother, who is remaining anonymous, felt compelled to give up her child.
As CNN reports, Deprill later explained that her mother “was extremely upset that she had to leave me and it wasn’t what she wanted, but she felt she had no other means. She was only 17 years old. She left me somewhere she knew I’d be found. She did not want to throw me away.”
Waldron and his staff, who prepared for the reunion with flowers, chocolates and boxes of tissues, were overwhelmed with emotion when it took place.
“It was one of the most emotional, joyful, dramatic, exciting things I’ve ever seen,” Waldron said.
He also said there was no doubt, after seeing the two together, that they were mother and child. “If you sat there for five minutes and heard them and watched them and observed them and looked at them, you would know,” he said.
During the meeting, Deprill said her birth mother expressed regret, but she was quick to tell her mom that she forgave her “110 percent, absolutely.”
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