Woman, given up for adoption 57 years ago, meets siblings in Tampa

TAMPA (FOX 13) - On any given day at the airport, there are a lot of "hellos" and "goodbyes."

On Saturday, a Tampa family waited for a reunion, 57 years in the making.

Over five decades ago, Paige Eaton’s mother gave her up for adoption. On Saturday, her five biological siblings brought her back into the family. 

“I already knew they were absolutely wonderful people,” Eaton said. “We’ve had a lot of conversations, and we’ve texted and emailed, and they’ve been nothing but welcoming, kind and generous.”

For years, Eaton searched for her siblings and hit several dead ends. But with the help of Ancestry.com, she was able to connect the dots and sent a letter to her biological brother, Steve Hicks in February.

“I opened it up, and two photographs fell out of it, and I began to read the letter and the author of it said, 'I think we’re related,'” Hicks said. “We did an ancestry kit about a week and a half ago, and it turned out we were a match, which confirmed what we thought was true.”

Hicks says his mother never revealed to her children what happened to her sixth child.

“We always thought the baby passed away at Tampa General Hospital, or something happened to the baby, no one ever talked about it,” Hicks said.

Before their mother died in 2009, she told her daughters about the child she put up for adoption in the 60s.

Their other sister passed away a few years ago, leaving just the four siblings.

Hicks says the group of five has over a half-century of catching up to do.

“For her, it’s the end of a 30-year journey of looking for her family,” he said. “For us, it’s the addition of a sister, that we didn’t even know we had.”