Adopted Greek Woman Locates Biological Family in Ultimate Christmas Gift

An extraordinary gift arrived just in time for Christmas for Greek native Karen Williams, who was adopted at just 13 months of age by a family living in the United States.

Just two days before Christmas, she was reunited with her biological family in Greece via social media. As Williams said in an interview with KXLY.com, “I was born in Katerini, Greece and then taken to Athens, and then to San Diego.” That was all she had known about her origins until several weeks ago.

With the help of her two daughters, who turned to their local Greek Orthodox church to assist with translating their mother’s Greek-language documents, Williams received her ultimate Christmas gift.

Once her daughters had translated the documents, they searched Facebook, messaging people in their mother’s hometown, hoping that someone would recognize her name. Finally, miraculously, someone did. “After a few weeks I got a message back that said “I found your family,’” said Rhiannon Williams, one of Karen’s daughters, in her interview with KXLY.

After years of searching for her biological family, Williams was shocked to find out that her relatives in Greece had been searching for her as well. “It’s thrilling to know that they have actually thought about me all these years, I had no idea,” she stated.

Williams is now eager to learn more about her Greek culture, her hometown, and of course, the Greek language, so she will be better able to communicate with her treasured new-found family members.

“I’ve got 27 new family members on my Facebook page… they have been calling, texting, introducing themselves. I’ve had nephews, cousins… they are embracing my whole family,” Williams told KXLY.

Amazingly, the sequence of events happened just in time for the holidays. And her gift was so enormous that it couldn’t possibly be wrapped up and placed under a Christmas tree.

After meeting her extended family members, as well as finding out she has five living biological siblings, she told interviewers, “it just warms my heart more than you can imagine, I’ve had tears and laughter and I’ve just been overwhelmed.”