Pueblo mom and son reunited after 25 years

Some children who were given up for adoption search their whole lives to find the ones who brought them into this world. For one Pueblo mom who had to give her child up for adoption 25 years ago, she was more than overjoyed when after all this time her son found her.

Judy Izykowski lives in Pueblo with her daughter Tiffany. Both have fallen on hard times. Tiffany has had six open-heart surgeries. Two within one month while Judy was pregnant with her son. With money troubles and the surgeries, she made the difficult decision of giving her son up for adoption.

“I did the right thing in my heart,” Izykowski says, “I wanted to give him a better life and let his adopted family love him and take care of him.”

All she had left of her son is a photo taken the day he was born. She wasn’t allowed to hold him and it was the only thing she had left to remember him. Izykowski says, “I didn’t know where he was because the adoptive family said not to have any contact with him.”

Then nearly three decades later, she got a call from her ex-boyfriend’s brother who told her someone was looking for her and it could be her son.

Nervous, she reached out to the number she was given and was overwhelmed when she talked to her son for the very first time.

“I’m just excited,” she said through tears, “I’ve been crying and I’m like wow is this for real?”

Since then, they have chatted over the phone several times.

“He calls me mom now, and we’ve gotten pretty close he says I love you mom, and we talk all the time.”

From everyday conversations to what happened the day he was born.

“He did ask why I gave him up for adoption and I told him, and he says I forgive you mom, and he says I love you and it just broke my heart.”

Her son is Bryce Imholz who lives in New Jersey. He said he used ancestry.com to find her. When he did, he asked his adoptive parents if Judy really was his mother, and they said she is.

After searching for three years, Bryce was happy to finally talk to his mom.

“It was life-changing just to know my mother was still alive, and she was still there,” Imholz says, “It kind of filled the hole that was left there because I always wanted to know who brought me into this world.”

Now Bryce wants to meet his mom and older sister in Pueblo and Judy says she would love nothing more.

Bryce has set up a GoFundMe account to raise money for the trip. If you would like to help out, click here.