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What did 2020 teach you, Beth Cole?

The Tampa woman gave her daughter up for adoption in 1993 at the age of 19. They reconnected in 2020 after 27 years apart.

TAMPA, Fla. — Beth Cole added a dog to her family this year. She jokingly refers to the pooch as her “grand-dog”.

“All the perk, none of the work,” she kids.

The dog is nice but can’t compare with discovering she was a grandmother after reconnecting with the child she gave up for adoption after 27 years.

“For us, 2020 has been amazing,” said Cole, who lives in Tampa.

At 19, Cole became pregnant and faced the decision of what to do with her child.

“For me, choosing life was always going to be the option,” she told us back in October. “It just really seemed, for me, adoption was just a win-win scenario. It’s a joy that I would have been able to give to another family.”

Rebecca Hook contacted Cole. She revealed that she’d been wanting to connect with her birth mother for a while and mustered up the courage to track her down. They began to text each other, then started calling on the phone. In July, Cole made the trip to her daughter, Rebecca and met her 2-year-old, Addy.

“It was just crazy how natural it was and how it felt like we’ve just known each other our entire lives,” Hook said in then.

A few weeks later, Rebecca and Addy made the return trip to Florida to see Cole and Cole’s parents. Having the four-generation photo was a special opportunity.

“I’m a Christian and I very much have seen woven throughout the Bible how God is a God of restoration,” a joyful Cole said. “Hope is that future reward. And I’ve always had this hope about Rebecca. Now, I was at peace and content that I may never meet her on this side of heaven, so to have had the privilege to just now be able to do life with them has been amazing.”

In a year when many families have lost loved ones, Cole added two.

“Love multiplies. It doesn’t divide,” she said.

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