Facebook Helps Reconnect A Family After Nearly Two Decades Apart

Facebook helped reconnect a family and News 9's cameras were there for the reunion.

Friday, April 25th 2014, 10:56 pm

By: News 9


Facebook helped reconnect a family and News 9's cameras were there for the reunion.

The metro mother hasn't seen her daughter in almost two decades. But now, they're ready for a new beginning.

A then 3-year-old Hannah Quattlebaum was put up for adoption along with her younger brother and sister in 1999. She hadn't heard from or seen her birth mother, until now.

"Nervous, excited, anxious, scared," said Kayla Benham.

Benham waited anxiously anticipating the arrival of her now 18-year-old daughter Hannah at Will Rogers World Airport. She's making the trip from Arizona.

"I never thought I would see her in my life again," said Benham. "She was the one in the window, slapping the window trying to get to me when they were departing from me. She wanted her mamma."  

Nearly 17-years-ago, Kayla put her three oldest children up for adoption. She says at the time she was heading down a rough road in life. She didn't have her own home, and wasn't employed. Kayla was approached by DHS.

"I was not a stable mother. I could not provide to my children what someone else could have been able to," said Benham.

Saturday, Kayla received Facebook messages from an 18-year-old asking her if she was her mother.

"It's been a long time. I prayed about it every day," said Benham.

It was now time for the reunion.

"That's her!" said one of Benham's younger daughters as Hannah walked toward them.

"I always told myself that I was going to hate her. I wasn't ever going to go back. But hearing the story and actually meting her, it's totally different," said Hannah Quattlebaum. "It feels good."  

Benham is now a supervisor at a local home health company. She lives in her own home with her three youngest children.

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