Facing homelessness with two young children, single mother Tammy Oswalt didn’t know how she’d be able to care for the third she was pregnant with.
What she did know was that she loved the child that was growing inside her womb.
So, she made the extraordinarily difficult decision to give her son and third child, who she named Bruce, up for adoption so that he could have a better life.
“A mom doesn’t give up her child like a sack of potatoes,” Oswalt told InsideEdition.com. “All I could give him was love and sometimes that’s not enough. I had to make the decision to give him up because I did love him.”
The guilt and stress of giving her boy up was overwhelming at times and stayed with Oswalt for 18 years.
“The emotional guilt and loss overwhelmed me,” said Oswalt.
Oswalt’s eldest daughter Samantha Hewett knew how troubled Oswalt was over the loss of her son.
So, she decided to do something extra special for mom’s 53rd birthday. Hewett always gives amazing presents, but this one topped them all.
“Last year Sammy had surprised me with tickets to see my favorite band, ACDC, so I was kind of in a ‘wait for it’ moment to see what wonderful thing she’d arranged for me this time,” Oswalt told Daily Mail.
Bruce, who grew up to be Dylan Rich, ended up reaching out to Hewett after finding her number through the internet.
The two had been secretly communicating for months.
But Rich wasn’t ready to meet his mom yet. Hewett eventually spilled the beans to her mom.
“All these questions were running through my head,” Oswalt said.
Oswalt and Rich ended up speaking over the phone, but she didn’t want to push him to meet if he wasn’t ready. When Oswalt’s birthday came around he was finally ready.
So, Hewett asked her mom to dinner and planned to surprise her with a visit from Rich at the restaurant.
“As soon as she said about it [the present] being something that ‘money can’t buy,’ something in my heart knew what was about to happen and I was so afraid to turn around,” Oswalt said.
But she finally did turn around and when she did she saw her long-lost son.
“The moment I looked back and saw him so much ran through me. There was so much love, I just wanted to hold and kiss him. Finally, the peace I have craved for in my heart was now right in front of me. I felt whole for the very first time, since I last held Dylan in my arms,” she said. “I waited almost 19 years for this moment and all I could do was say, ‘Oh my God, I love you. You’re beautiful.'”
Oswalt and Rich live just 90 minutes from each other and intent to continue visits and building a relationship.
You can watch mom and son’s heartwarming reunion in the video below!
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