Miracles happen…Local family reunites with son, grandson after 26 years

By ELAINE SANDMAN

Staff Writer

A long time ago, faced with the toughest decision a family can make, Mona Heineman-Nicholls, found the strength and courage to place her son up for adoption. Her parents June and Bernie Heineman, provided the love and support Mona needed to make this heart wrenching decision.

As if sensing all the firsts he would someday achieve, Mona's son was the first grandson, born on Bernie's birthday which was May 18, 1980, it was also the day Mt. St. Helen's erupted.

Even 26 years later, neither Mona nor her parents, as Bernie puts it, forgot the 'heart connection' they had with the son and grandson they lost. With her parents encouragement Mona began searching for her son Jessy Wardwell, who had also begun a search of his own.

"When I was about six or seven, I found out I was adopted and was curious about my real parents," Jessy recalled. "My parents wanted to help me, but during that time, all court records for adoptions were sealed and there was nothing they could do."

One day as he was surfing the web, Jessy finally found a website that assists with making adoption contacts, if all parties consent.

"I put in a profile with all my information, and although I checked it a few times, I nearly forgot about it until the day I decided to go in and erase it," Jessy explained. "That's when I saw Mona's query and I thought, is this for real?"

Mona who had begun a search of her own had found the same website, and actually located Jessy's profile.

"I was so excited and scared, I almost thought about not doing anything, but then I showed it to my dad, and he made me take that leap of faith," Mona said laughing. "

At the same time, Jessy started researching the information and the facts began clicking into place. However, he felt that this whole thing was a little surreal, so he remained a little skeptical.

"But she knew too many facts about my birth date, birth records, etc.," Jessy said. "At that point we began frequently exchanging emails and phone, but I think it really hit her that I was really her son on Valentines day last year. She called me and was real bubbly, happy and crying at the same time."

It was at that time that Mona's youngest son, Jessy's half-brother, suggested that they should meet mid-way between where everyone lived.

"We chose to meet Jessy at Lake Chelan in Washington," Mona explained. "My husband Mark, youngest son Justin, and my mom and dad drove over to meet Jessy."

"On the drive over, Mona was so excited one minute, not worried about anything, the next minute she was bawling and worried," Mark said.

Jessy added that he had been ready to meet his mom from the first day the information checked out.

"But it surprised even me on how emotional I felt when the day finally arrived," Jessy said.

As the event planner for the family reunion on April 28, 2007, June managed to coral 19 members of the family for a group picture, but this week long event saw as many as 23 or more family members attending.

Jessy and his fiance Kristen Merrill stayed for three days, but as a volunteer firefighter in his hometown, Jessy was concerned about being gone for too long.

As part of an ongoing project to rehabilitate back to nature some acreage on June and Bernie's property, Jessy, Kristen and all the visiting relatives helped by planting trees.

"I hope we can hold many more reunions over the years, so the whole family can witness this site's return to its natural state," June said.

Jessy's fiance Kristen talked about her new future relations and said her family is close, but quite about smaller, especially when you combine Jessy's adopted family the Wardells, along with his newly found family.

"Jessy's adopted family is large and we already go to an average seven Christmas', now it will be more like 15," Kristen said laughing.

Jessy told his mom Mona, "You've turned my family tree into a forest."

Adoptions are complex and each State handles them differently, but Jessy, Mona, June and Bernie all agree, "miracles do happen, so don't ever give up hope."