DJ Williams was only 5-days-old when his mother abandoned him inside the nativity exhibit at St. Anne’s Church in Houston, Texas. When no one was looking, the woman took baby Jesus out of the manger, and replaced it with her own newborn. It was like a scene straight of a movie, but what unfolded was the real-life drama of DJ’s life.
From that moment on DJ became known as “The Manger Baby.” Although the story made headline news, no one was brave enough to come forward with information about the identity of his mother.
DJ was eventually put up for adoption and raised by a loving family. He always knew he had been adopted, but was clueless as to his humble beginnings. It wasn’t until 44 years after he was abandoned that DJ learned the truth about his mysterious past.
When he was 15, DJ’s grandmother pulled him aside and gave him the scoop about where and how he was found. According to ABC News, she showed him some newspaper clippings from back in the day, but instead of answering his questions it just created more.
DJ enlisted the help of investigative genealogist Pam Slaton, who wasn’t positive that she could give him a happy outcome. While Pam continued to investigate his past, DJ submitted a DNA test to Family Tree DNA, who matched him to two people, a male and a female.
Pam contacted the man and woman, who turned out to be DJ’s uncle and half-sister, named Rose. When the woman said that her mother used to go to St. Anne’s Church in Houston, Pam knew she had finally found what DJ had been looking for all his life – his roots.
Rose was born two years after DJ, but she wasn’t the only half-sibling waiting to be discovered! He also had two more half-sisters and a half-brother who couldn’t wait to meet him, but his mother was no where in sight.
Sadly, she had passed away a few years earlier. But, that didn’t keep DJ from setting up a meeting with his new siblings, and he invited them over to his house for a family reunion.
DJ hugged his siblings as they streamed through the door one by one, and as the night wore on, it’s as if they had known each other for years. But, there was still one juicy bit of detail that his other family actually didn’t know – that their mother had abandoned him as a baby.
The revelation was highly charged and emotional. None of them could explain to DJ why their mother acted the way that she did, but they were in tears when they realized how DJ had been haunted by the abandonment all his life. DJ told ABC News:
“For me, it was about finding that connection. You’re just floating in the sea and you don’t have any anchor to hold onto, and so now I have something to hold onto, and I’m not letting go.”
Watch this video to see DJ’s interview and see the tear-jerking family reunion.
