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Woman who gave her baby up for adoption gets a wonderful surprise from the new family

"You know, you can't have too many people loving you, right?”

A journal detailing Steven Schoebinger's young life.

At Upworthy, we love sharing the “best of humanity” with our audience, and this story out of Utah, originally reported by CBS News’ Steve Hartman, shows the power of love to break down barriers.

When Schauna Austin, 48, was 20 years old, she got pregnant and knew she wasn’t ready to raise a child, so she made the difficult decision to give the baby up for adoption. She gave birth to a son she named Riley and only had 3 days to spend with him before surrendering him to his new family.

So, she held him tight for 72 hours straight.

"It was perfect," Austin said about those 3 emotionally-charged days. "I knew I would have him for a short time, so I made every minute count of it. I didn't sleep for three days." It must have been tough for Austin to give up her son because the grieving process can be incredibly difficult.


Riley, renamed Steven, was given to Chris and Jennifer Schoebinger in a closed adoption, where Austin was not to be informed about the adoptive family. In Utah, closed adoptions are a rarity these days, with about 95% allowing some exchange of information between the birth and adoptive parents.

However, about a week later, the Schoebingers had a change of heart.

The Schoebingers decided Austin should be involved in Steven’s life. "It was like, 'OK, this is the way it should be. She was part of our family,'" Jennifer told CBS News. "You know, you can't have too many people loving you, right? Why couldn't he be both of ours?" Chris added.

Every year, the Schoebingers sent Austin pictures and bound journals showing Steven's journey in deep detail. They even had lists of all the new words he learned each year. The books were titled “The Life and Times of ‘Riley,’” paying homage to Steven’s original name.

The hope was that one day when the biological mother and son were ready, they could pick up where they left off. That moment came when Steven was 7 years old and Austin taught him to fish.

The unique arrangement has been fantastic for both Austin and her biological son. "I was blessed beyond words," Austin said. "I kind of got the best of both worlds, for sure," Steven agreed. It may seem like relationships between children and those who gave them up for adoption would be complicated. But studies show that 84% of adoptees reported high levels of satisfaction when maintaining ongoing contact with their birth parents.

Steven is now 27 and in August 2022, he and his wife, Kayla, had their first child, a boy they named Riley—the name Steven was originally given by his biological mother. Austin is now a grandmother.

The remarkable story of Austin and the Schoebinger family proves that when we put walls between ourselves and others, we are often blocking everyone off from more love and support. "I think the lesson we learned is that sometimes we create barriers where barriers don't need to be. And when we pull down those barriers, we really find love on the other side," Chris said.


This article originally appeared on 6.11.24

via CBS Sunday Morning

On July 19, 2003, in the early days of the Iraq war, Army Lt. Jonathan D. Rozier of Katy, Texas was killed in an ambush while on patrol in Baghdad. He left behind his wife, Jessica, and a nine-month-old baby, Justin.

Jonathan's death meant that his wife had to make some tough decisions. To pay for daycare, she had to return her deceased husband's 1999 Toyota Celica back to the dealer, forfeiting the car loan.

"I didn't want to keep chipping away at my savings to pay for a car that nobody was using," she told NBC. "It was just sitting in my driveway."


She would soon forget about the car until August of 2017 when she was looking for a birth certificate and ran across its 2002 registration papers. Her son Justin, now 14, had his learner's permit and was turning 15 in three months. Jessica thought that if she was able to find his father's beloved old convertible, it'd be the perfect birthday gift.

"I wonder if this car is still out there? I was thinking I would go on a years-long search to find this car," Jessica said.

So she put out an appeal on Facebook to see if anyone could locate the car.

"It was Jon's car (1LT Jonathan Rozier, KIA Iraq 7-19-03) and when he died, I wasn't thinking ahead to when Justin (his son) would be driving 15 years later. If you facebookers could work your magic and help me find it, it would be an amazing present for his 16th birthday if it hasn't become a tin can by now," she wrote.

Fortunately, the car turned up just a few days later in Utah. The daughter of the car's owner said her dad may not want to sell it, but was open to having a conversation about the car.

"If I call and he doesn't want to sell it then my hopes would be crushed," Jessica said. "It took me 12 hours to get the courage to call him."

After some discussion, the owner, Jorge Cruz, decided to sell the car to Jessica. Now, the only problem was coming up with the cash to buy it to make some necessary upgrades so it would be safe for a teenager.

Jessica reached out to an organization dedicated to promoting patriotism called Follow The Flag for some fundraising help. The organization got the necessary funds together, bought the car, made some repairs, and had the car shipped to Texas for Justin's 15ht birthday.

"It's what we do, it's something we do in hopes of inspiring others," said Kyle Fox, the founder of Follow The Flag.

The car was presented to Justin at his birthday party and it was an emotional reunion, to say the least. When Justin got into the car, he was speechless.

"I was waiting for him, for it to click, that's dad's car," Jessica said. "He starts looking at it, gets in, he looks so much like his dad."

The reunion was just as important for Jessica. "I never got to see him come home," she told CBS Sunday Morning. "I think I needed that."

A veteran's car, and a son's keepsakewww.youtube.com