Simona Siad
Staff Reporter

It only took Jennifer McLaren a few minutes to do what her mother had longed to do for 30 years.

It was Tuesday night. She felt compelled to log on to Facebook after having seen an article about a mother and son in British Columbia who found each other online.

McLaren typed in a name. One match came up: Angie Moase.

Thirty years ago, Moase, 16, was pregnant and scared. The Trenton, Ont., teen travelled to Regina to stay with her uncle and give the baby up for adoption. In 1994, she began searching for her daughter through the Saskatchewan Department of Social Services. But a message cut through all that red tape.

"I know we don't know each other," McLaren wrote.

"But I was adopted in Aug. 1977. My birthmother had the same name as you. Just wondering if maybe you are her? My birth name was April Jo Moase, born in Regina, Saskatchewan."

It seemed too ludicrous to be true.

"I gasped, and I yelled for my husband to come see," said Moase. "I couldn't believe it."

Moase was skeptical at first. But as they messaged back and forth, Moase learned her daughter is married with two children. And both women are nurses. Moase lives in Trenton, McLaren in Guelph.

"The tears were rolling," said Moase.

Her daughter wrote she had been thinking about her for years wondering, "Who do I looked like?" or "How will I look when I'm older?"

And of course there were the tough questions.

"I did not give you up easily," Moase wrote her daughter. "The nurses in the maternity ward had to take you from my arms. We all cried ... I do not regret giving you all I could not at 16."

They have not yet talked on the phone. Moase wants to give her daughter space, but she's very excited.

"I missed 30 years," she said. "I would drive right now to Guelph if she wanted me to come."

And if you wondered how a mother sums up 30 years of longing in words, Moase's updated Facebook status now reads: Angela Jean Moase is very happy today. I found my daughter Jennifer.