(12/24/2019) - The gifts under the Christmas tree from her children forever changed Abeni Jackson Johnson's life.

"From Conrad it was a DNA kit ancestry's kit," Johnson said. "And then Conleigh got me a 23 and Me kit."

It stirred up emotions that Johnson thought she had long put to rest.

"Wondering who do I look like, where do I come from, where do I really come from," she said.

Forty years ago, Benny Taylor was living in Illinois, working as a performer at a local night club. He began dating the daughter of the club owner.

Soon, he and Beverly moved in together -- and that's when Taylor noticed some changes in her appearance. When he asked her about it, Taylor says she told him she had a tumor.

He soon found out that explanation was far from the truth. One night, when he arrived home from work he was told to head to the hospital emergency room. When he arrived he learned the truth.

"I had no idea she was pregnant," Taylor said.

Abeni grew up knowing she was adopted, but it would be years before she had the courage to gift herself that closure. She credits it to the life she had growing up.

"I had such a great life growing up and I never thought of myself as different. This is my family, so I just never really thought about my birth mother," Abeni said.

Using the Christmas presents her children had given her Abeni submitted her DNA for testing. The results came back, identifying her birth parents as Benny and Beverly.

Benny remembers what he was told on the day of Abeni's birth.

"She (Beverly) had made the decision then from in the hospital: 'I don't want to see the baby I'm giving the baby up for adoption,'" Taylor recalls her telling him.

Taylor was bothered this decision.

"That made me feel like I had nothing to do with anything," he said.

Taylor kissed his new baby and named her Kamara Anette Taylor.

In 1978, Wade and Patricia Jackson were married with a young son. They wanted a little girl, so they checked out the process while they were stationed in Illinois with the military.

One month after Kamara Anette Taylor was born, she was adopted by the Jacksons.

At age 40 Abeni took a leap of faith and begin looking for her birth parents. With the information provided from the DNA test, she went to the internet in search of private investigator and clicked on the first name she saw.

"It was private investigator Lisa Townsend in San Diego, Calif.," Abeni said.

She doubted the person would be able to help her.

"What is she going to do in San Diego and I'm in Virginia? I said OK," Abeni said.

The first thing she was advised her to do was to get her hands on her original birth certificate, which Abeni has never seen.

"If I were to show you my birth certificate, it would say Wade and Patricia are my parents," she said.

When the document arrived, it was just a matter of hours before Abeni had found the missing pieces of her life. Her initial reaction was it was too much too fast.

Her first call was to her biological father.

"You know, she explained who she was, I was just captivated, because, I mean, it just doesn't happen. It happens in the movies," Taylor said.

Abeni didn't immediately call her birth mother. Instead, she wrote her a letter and sent her book, which arrived in March 2019.

In a few short months, mother and daughter were reunited after 41 years. Beverly recalls their initial meeting.

"She said, 'Oh mom.' I said, 'Oh daughter' and we just embraced," Beverly recalled. "When you love something, someone it doesn't matter where they go or how far they are. The love never changes."