This past weekend, Jeremy Martin of Chapin, South Carolina, celebrated his 47th birthday and got the surprise of his life. At his party at a local country club, Martin got together with both of his biological parents for the first time in his entire life. His biological father, Monty Swicegood, and mother, Wendy Dunn, were teens when Martin was born back in 1976 and weren’t given the option of keeping him, so he was adopted when he was three days old.
Martin went on to have a successful and happy life. He met his future bride, Stacey, when he was 17 and later graduated from Arkansas State University and became a real estate attorney. When his wife learned that he was adopted, she promised to track down his biological parents for him one day.
The years-long search ended when a DNA test matched Martin with his father, which led to Martin learning about his mother. It turned out they’d only been separated by a short distance with both parents living within a couple hours drive. At the birthday party, they seemed like a family that’d always been together. Martin now encourages others looking for their biological families to not give up: "Don't stop. Know where you come from,” he says, “It's been a great journey. It's been a lot at one time finding family members, but I wouldn't trade it for anything."
Source: WTSP