DNA test reunites Los Banos woman with child she thought died nearly 30 years ago

LOS BANOS, Calif. (KTVU) - A DNA testing kit helped a Los Banos woman reunite with her son who she thought died three decades ago. 

Tina Bejarano gave birth when she was 17 years old, but her mother told her she wasn't allowed to keep the baby. 

The next day, her mother told her the baby had died 15 minutes after being born. 

Bejarano later married and now has five children. For nearly three decades the family has been celebrating the baby's birthday and every year got harder. 

"I would get depressed. I would cry all the time," Bejarano told news outlet KMPH. 

Last year her daughter encouraged her to take a DNA test and soon afterward, Bejarano received an email from a 29-year-old man named Kristin saying he was her son. 

"I think we need to talk, it says we're related, and it says you're my mom," part of the email read.

Her long-lost child Kristin is living in New Jersey with his wife and baby, KMPH reports. 
 
"Looking at him just makes me want to cry. He sends us pictures almost on a daily basis of him and the baby," Bejarano said. 

And, instead of a daughter, Bejarano now has a son.

"I don't care. I don't care if he's in transition. I don't care if he hasn't transitioned. I don't care. That's my kid." We're just glad he's alive." she said.

Bejarano's husband Eric Gardere says he's building a father-son relationship with Kristin even though he's not his biological dad.

"We've been communicating with Kristin for a few months now. He calls me Dad, I call him son," Gardere says. 

Kristin and his family plan to meet his estranged parents over the Thanksgiving holiday.