Woman searching for birth mother on Facebook grateful for support

Two Sundays from now, it will be Mother’s Day. A woman in Olympia is hoping she’ll be able to celebrate it by settling a 33-year-old mystery.

“My parents, they told me my story as long as I could remember, it’s a story I’ve always known, I have copies of the newspaper articles and of the notes that were left with me,” said Taya Lee. “Everybody has their birth story. This was kind of my birth story and it was just something normal to me really because my parents were so open and honest about it and very loving and supportive.”

Lee was left on the steps of St. Edwards Catholic Church in Shelton on January 29, 1981. She was only a few days old.

Her biological mother also left a note with her that read: “My name is Elizabeth Ann. Please find me a good home and take good care of me.”

Lee waited years to start the search for her mother. She decided this was the year to finally put her story on Facebook and it spread like wildfire.

“It’s just incredible how fast it spread really and I have some expectations on finding her but, you know, I try not to keep the hope too high because you never know what will happen,” said Lee.

Taya doesn’t know a lot about her biological mother, but a note sent to the Shelton Police Department around the same time she was left at the church stated that her mother was 16 years old and didn’t have a job.

Taya has many reasons today to want to find her mother.

“Before, for many years, my goal, if I was to ever start this journey was I wanted to know my medical history, my ethnicity, just certain basics like that to put medical stuff in order for myself, but the further I’m going the more I’m interested in who she is and just to let her know I forgive her. There’s no hard feelings. I love her for what she did,” said Lee.

Since her post to Facebook, Lee said the day she was left at the Shelton church a young boy walking by and heard her cries. He picked her up from the church steps and brought her to a safe place.

Lee has thought about who that boy is her whole life. He’s her hero. And her hero is also on Facebook.

“I sent him a friend request and once he accepted it I was very blunt. I said, ‘I think you were the person that found me when I was on that door step.’ And he said, ‘I think I was.’ We started talking and I just cried so much it was amazing,” she said.

Lee’s Facebook post with a picture of her and a brief explanation that she’s looking for her mother has been shared more than 1,300 times as of the posting of this story. She’s had a few people reach out with possible leads.

“My mom had this story that she had a little girl and she lived in Washington, but that story didn’t really add up as far as dates,” said Lee. “There was another one and it said that she picked up a young girl, a hitchhiker, in Shelton and she took her to Bremerton and a few days later my story came out in the newspaper.”

Though she hasn’t found her mom yet, Lee is grateful for the supportive messages from strangers across the country.

“Incredible, absolutely incredible I never imagined it to be like this, I really, really honestly didn’t. I’m trying to reply to everybody at least to say thank you it’s amazing how many people out there really do share a similar story.”