A woman who thought her long-lost biological mother was dead and wrote a novel to say goodbye had the surprise of her life, one she least expected. Her mother was alive, and they reunited after 25 years.
Stefany Valentine was in the middle of writing her first book, First Love Language, about an adoptee longing to re-establish a connection with her culture and to say "goodbye" to her birth mother, Meiling Valentine.
The 31-year-old had given up on the possibility that she would ever get to see her mother.
Ms Valentine is one of the five children born to Ms Meiling and Lt. Col. Todd Merrill Valentine. After her parents separated, Ms Valentine and her father relocated to the United States. Meiling eventually stepped away from their lives.
But "there has always been a need to know," Ms Valentine told PEOPLE.
She said she turned to writing as a coping mechanism, contributing a short tale about the adoptee experience to the young-adult anthology "When We Become Ours".
After searching historical and familial records, she eventually gave up looking for her mother after several psychics told her she was dead.
Then, on New Year's Eve 2023, she received an unexpected call.
"There's a Taiwanese woman in our Mormon church, and she grew up with your mom, and she's going to find her for you," her sister-in-law told her.
Ms Valentine and her siblings initially reconnected with Ms Meiling via text and eventually travelled to Taiwan to meet her in person. In August, they finally met for the first time in over 20 years.
They reunited at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport.
"I was wondering if I would recognise her in a crowd, and I did. It felt amazing to give her my first hug. I needed that hug," Ms Valentine said.
Talking about her experience, Ms Valentine said, "I was feeling anxious, nervous, scared, excited, everything."
She claimed the resemblance was shocking. She and her 57-year-old mother made up for lost time during her two-week trip to Taiwan. They went climbing, exploring street markets, spending the night in an aquarium, and even celebrating Meiling's birthday.
Ms Valentine noted that working on First Love Language was "very therapeutic."
The book is about Catie, a Taiwanese-American adolescent adoptee who wants to learn Mandarin to re-establish a connection with her culture.
