God really does answer prayers, and Goldie Waltman from Juanita County can attest to this.
Waltman, 85, gave birth to her daughter Patricia Lorenz back in 1954, but then left her in the care of a couple she was staying with because she was single and unemployed. "I gave her up, and it was the hardest thing I ever did in my life," Waltman told Fox 8.
After leaving Lorenz, Waltman prayed for her every single day. As the years stretched, Waltman felt it more and more unlikely that she will see her lost daughter again. But God has other plans.
Waltman hid the identity of her daughter Lorenz from her five other children until she went to a doctor's appointment five years ago. "[He] asked her how many kids she had and she said 'I have six,'" Kellie Taylor, one of Waltman's other daughters, said. "My sister at that point said, 'No, you have five' and she goes, 'No, I have six.' And that's how we found out."
Waltman's daughters decided to look for the half sister they never knew. They chanced upon her two weeks ago. "We started to search for her, but unfortunately we were using the wrong name, wrong state, and we just didn't get anywhere," Taylor said.
As for Lorenz, she started searching for her mother when she was 16. After finding each other through ancestry.com and sharing a phone call, Waltman's children made an effort to fly Lorenz to Juanita County, and they finally came face to face last Thursday after 62 years of separation.
"I finally got to see her," Waltman said. "The Lord's been good. I didn't think this would ever happen."
"I don't know how to explain it," Lorenz added. "I've been excited about coming to meet her and see her for so long, and it's like a reality come true."
