During the mid-1980s, a Marine named Tom Chaney was stationed in Alaska. During his time there, he had a short romance with a woman from the Navy.
They both eventually went their separate ways, however, when Tom moved to Hawaii and the woman shipped off to a base in Virginia.
What Tom wouldn’t find out until three decades later is that this brief romance led to the birth of a baby girl.
Stephanie McKenna had been put up for adoption by her birth mother.
Stephanie McKenna’s birth mother, the woman who had a brief romance with Tom, put her child up for adoption.
16 years later, Stephanie would reach out to her but, unfortunately, it was not a positive experience.
Her mother didn’t seem interested in establishing a relationship with her.
As for Tom, he had never wanted children. After the Marines, he joined the police force, something his father had done before him.
As a child, Tom saw how difficult a life that was for someone with a family.
“I didn’t want to put a kid through that,” he said to 23andMe.
Stephanie’s parents gift her a 23andMe kit.
Stephanie’s adoptive parents were loving and supportive.
They provided a good childhood for Stephanie.
Still, she decided she wanted to search for her birth father.
Her parents gifted her a 23andMe kit. The DNA testing service connected her to her grandfather, Tom Chaney’s father, Tom Sr.
This led Stephanie to her birth father.
She reached out to him on Facebook and received a quick response.
“I thought maybe I’d hear back in a week. I heard back 20 minutes later,” McKenna said to 12 News.
Getting to know each other through calls, texts and Zoom
The first thing Tom said to his daughter after it was established he really is her biological father was, “I’m sorry, I didn’t know.”
The two got to know each other through calls, zoom, and texts. They finally made plans to meet.
Stephanie eventually traveled to Arizona, where her father was living.
“It was a meeting 34 years in the making,” she said.
It was an emotional meeting for both father and daughter.
“We have so many similarities. It’s not even funny. It is ridiculous,” Chaney said.
Father and daughter get to know each other
After their first meeting, Stephanie and Tom realized they shared many interests and personality traits.
“It’s uncanny how many things we share in common,” Stephanie said.
“Even the way we talk, there’s a similar cadence and similar facial expressions,” she continued.
Finding out you are a father for the first time
Finding out you are going to be a parent is always an emotional time.
Finding out you are a parent, when you didn’t know you had been, for 34 years carries with it some additional emotions.
“It’s all those things that I missed, that I wasn’t there for and couldn’t share with her,” Tom said. “That hurts inside, but it’s in the past, and now I want to make the most of it.”
“I’ve got 34 years to catch up on,” he said.
Adoptive parents are very supportive
Stephanie’s adoptive parents are supportive of her relationship with her biological father as well.
She says it’s just as though a new person has been added to the family.
“They (her parents) are so awesome. They want to share this with me and see it more like bringing someone else into the family,” she said.
Watch the video below to see the tear-jerking moment the father and daughter meet!
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