It was an emotional moment.
It’s a special Mother’s Day for Rita Conard, who never stopped thinking about the daughter she gave up for adoption in 1984.
A young mother at the time, Conard believed she was incapable of providing the life her daughter deserved.
"I always wondered where she was and what she was doing," Conard told InsideEdition.com. "Was she safe? Was she in the right family?"
Those questions were unexpectedly answered when Conard received a message from her cousin in January, saying that he thought he’d found her birth daughter on the DNA testing site, 23AndMe.
Megan Meier, Conard’s now 33-year-old birth daughter, had taken the test to find out her heritage, not thinking it would lead to her birth mother. When she got her results, she realized there was a relative section she hadn’t known about.
"I connected with the top five [relatives]," Meier said. "Three of them I think were related and within an hour I got a message saying, ‘I am pretty sure I know who your birth mom is.'"
Meier said her heart dropped and she looked at her phone, thinking it couldn’t be real.
But it was.
The next day, the pair conversed through email. Conard sent Meier baby pictures she’d received from the adoption agency and a letter from the mom who raised Meier.
"It blew my mind because I anticipated having years of dead ends, and private investigators, and a lot of money to figure out who my birth mom is and it didn’t happen that way," Meier said.
Conard said she hadn’t searched for Meier because she didn’t want to impose on her life.
The pair met last week in an NYC hotel ahead of a Mother’s Day brunch put together by 23andMe.
"It’s a huge gift for me," Meier said. "I just never thought it was possible."
Meier has also learned that she has two brothers, ages 29 and 24. The pair hope to continue getting to know each other and forming their relationship.
And Conard’s questions that she has pondered all these years have finally been answered.
"She’s with a wonderful family," Conard said. "I mean, she had a wonderful life. She’s beautiful. She’s talented. She’s happy."
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