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On Friday morning, Steve Smith and his daughter, Julie, sat by each other on a loveseat at the Billings home Steve shares with his wife, Sue.

He frequently put an arm around Julie. The two talked and laughed as though they’d been doing it all their lives.

In truth, the father-daughter reunion has been more than 40 years in the making. That it happened at all is due to the international reach of Facebook.

Steve, 61, a Montana native, has lived in Billings for much of his life. Julie, 42, although born in Great Falls, has spent most of her life in the Netherlands.

“For years I always had a feeling that I wanted to know who my birth father was, and off and on I did a little research,” she said.

But life has a way of getting in the way, and Julie put off the search for a while.

“And then Facebook came,” she said.

Young life

Steve picked up the story of how the two became separated so many years ago.

He grew up in Kalispell and eventually moved to Billings. Steve met Julie’s mom, Patricia, in 1972 when the two were students at West High.