Most children who are given up for adoption go through their entire lives never knowing why, or even their birth parents’ names. But through a letter that his birth mother, Julie, left before giving him up for adoption, Australian radio announcer Ryan Jon at least knows the basics.
“So from the little information I know, it seems that when she got pregnant unexpectedly, she didn’t believe that she had the time or maturity to be a great mum,”Jon, 29, explains in a Facebook video posted on May 7 – exactly one week before Mother’s Day.
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“And she sort of implies that she didn’t have the best upbringing, and she wanted to make sure that her child had every opportunity available,”he continues, “so she thought the best thing to do would be to give me up for adoption.â€
The video has since gone viral, garnering 10 million views and more than 156,000 shares, in a sort of crowdsourcing effort to connect Ryan and Julie.
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During the 2:47 clip, Ryan says he’d love to meet his birth mother to thank her for her sacrifice and selflessness, for affording him the opportunity to live the kind of life she herself did not feel she could provide.
But, he says, his voice cracking with emotion, he hasn’t conducted a full-blown search simply out of respect, knowing Julie might have a husband and other children by now and “I might go looking for someone who might not necessarily want to be found.â€
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“So if this video gets shared around enough and my birth mother views it, I don’t expect anything from you, I don’t need you to do anything or contact me,”he concludes. “I just wanted to say thank you for everything and I hope you have a great Mother’s Day.â€
From there, Ryan went on to create a four-part video series also posted on his Facebook page to talk more about adoption. In these videos, Ryan sits down with his adoptive mother and discusses his adoption, including the fact that it was always talked about openly and was never a tightly held family secret. His parents had been tried for years to conceive, and adopted Ryan when he was a little more than a month old.
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“Did it take time for me to [go from being] this baby you were just given to your child?” he asks.
“No, not really. No, no, no, not at all. That bond was really quick,” she immediately responds.
It’s clear that, whether Ryan reconnects with his birth mother or no, he knows he is loved.
View Ryan’s emotional address to his biological mother below, and share his heartfelt story!
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