When Schauna Austin was 20 and single, she gave birth to a boy. But her family, adopting her son, wanted to involve her in every important step of his life.
Austin said she gave birth to a child she named Riley and held him for the entire 72 hours.
“It was perfect,” Austin said of holding her new baby. did.”
Her Riley will be Steven in another family. But it only lasted about a week.
“It was like, ‘Okay, that’s how it should be. She was part of our family,'” her adoptive mother Jennifer Schebinger told CBS News.
She and her husband, Chris Schabinger, have said they have no interest in getting rid of their birth mother.
“Look, you can’t have too many people loving you, can you? Why couldn’t he be both of us?” said Chris Schabinger.
So each year they sent Austin a pile of photographs and bound books detailing all of Stephen’s major and minor milestones. Schoebingers said he did this so that Austin and his son could pick up where they left off when they were ready.
The two reunited when Stephen was seven years old. Austin taught him how to fish.
“I am blessed beyond words,” Austin said.
“Certainly, I have the best of both worlds,” Stephen said.
Stephen is now 26 years old, married and has a boy. Much to Austin’s delight, he named the child Riley.
“I think the lesson we’ve learned is that sometimes you build barriers where you don’t need to build barriers. And when you remove those barriers, you really find love on the other side,” says Chris. Schebinger said.
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