For many people, the birth of a child is well-planned, long-awaited moment of joy. But unfortunately, this isn’t the case for everyone.
On the evening of Saturday May 16, 1998, Azita Milanian was jogging with her dogs in Southern California. Her friends had asked her to go dancing, but she declined.
During the run, one of her dogs suddenly stopped and started digging. When Azita looked to see what her dog had found, she was shocked to see two small feet poking out of the ground.
Azita assumed that the child in front of her was dead. But then, he unexpectedly cried. She quickly dug out the newborn, who still had his umbilical cord hanging from his belly button.
“Please don’t die,” she said to the baby, according to the Los Angeles Times. ”I will never leave you, I love you.”
Buried alive
The child hadn’t just been dumped there, but had also been buried alive.
“He grabbed my wrist and stopped crying,” Azita says. “It was very emotional.”
What kind of a person could’ve done something so terrible to a newborn baby?
Azita rushed the little one to the hospital, where he received immediate care. His body temperature was at life-threateningly low 80°F (27°C), but he survived.
The authorities tried to find the person who abandoned the boy, whom the nurses at the hospital named Christian. But they came up empty-handed.
The police received an anonymous phone call a month later from a woman claiming to be the mother. She asked what the punishment would be, but then she hung up.
The authorities suspected that the mother was very young and probably panicked after giving birth and dumped the child.
Azita considered adopting Christian herself, but after all the media attention, she thought it would be too easy for someone to find him.
For a while, she tried to keep up to date on how Christian was doing. But after the boy was adopted, it wasn’t possible anymore.
Azita dreamed that one day he would find her again, just as she found him.
But the years passed and she didn’t hear anything. Not for 20 years.
Fortunately, Christian was adopted by a good family. They loved him and named him Matthew and kept Christian as his middle name.
I knew he was adopted
It wasn’t until Matthew was 17 that he found out that his parents weren’t his biological ones.
When he was 20, a radio show heard Matthew’s story and approached him, asking if he’d consider taking a DNA test and getting the results live on air. He agreed, and the radio producers also invited Azita, whom they found out about while researching the story.
The reunion was wonderful, and Azita was finally able to breathe a sigh of relief knowing that the baby she saved all those years ago had been adopted by a good family.
Matthew said he couldn’t imagine a better upbringing than the one he received.
“I’m here today. I’ve lived a great life, ” Matthew told the Los Angeles Times. “I was adopted into a great family. I couldn’t ask my parents for any more.”
The day of the reunion was Matthew’s birthday, and Azita took him to the place where she found him 20 years earlier.
The moment when Azita and Matthew recognized the place that could’ve been his grave was an emotional one.
How lucky that Azita found Matthew that day! Otherwise, he probably wouldn’t have survived.
Love for children isn’t found in DNA, but in the heart. Share if you agree!
