There comes a time in many people’s lives where they are put in the unfortunate situation of having to put a child up for adoption. When this happens, the child moves in with an adoptive family and is given a brand new life. More often than not, adopted children become curious about their biological parents as they get older, but not this man. It wasn’t until his adoptive mother brought up his Facebook page that he realized something strange was going on in his life.27-year-old Nathan Boos of Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin had no complaints about his quiet life. In fact, he was more than happy with the way things were going for him. After he studied welding at Chippewa Valley Technical College and did some professional soul searching, Nathan started his very own trucking company.
Nathan may have been doing well with his career, but he was having a whole lot of luck and happiness with his personal life, as well. Not only did Nathan finish school and start his own successful company, but he also met the love of his life, Nicole Marie Hein. Realizing they were meant to be, the couple got engaged.
Nathan was too focused on the present to worry about what happened in his past. You see, Nathan was given up for adoption when he was just a newborn. Despite the missing pieces of his past, Nathan never even asked what his birth parents’ names were or where they had come from.
Like so many other adopted children, it took Nathan some time to truly feel like he was a part of his adoptive family while he was growing up. It wasn’t until he got into junior high school that Nathan finally felt accepted and comfortable with his adoptive family, and after that point, he never felt the need to ask about his birth parents again.
Well, that lasted until about a decade later when Nathan started to discover some things about his past that he had no intentions of ever knowing. And it all began when Nathan’s adoptive father joined him on a work trip from Georgia to Illinois several years ago.
The father and son duo were talking about how Nathan had wanted to be a truck driver ever since he was just a small child. Nathan’s adoptive father had even made a joke about truck driving being in Nathan’s blood. At the time, it was a silly joke made in passing, but that was when Nathan didn’t know that truck driving actually WAS in his bloodline.
The conversation that he had with his adoptive father made Nathan think: “I probably met my father when I was trucking on the road. I probably met him at a truck stop and didn’t know it. It wasn’t something I was hell-bent on figuring out,” he said.
As usual, life just went on for Nathan and he didn’t bring up the conversation that he had with his adoptive father again. In 2016, after several years had passed, Nathan started a new job with Rock Solid Transport. He would soon see that taking his new job would end up being one of the greatest decisions he would ever make.
Fortunately, everything was going extremely well with his new job. Nathan was able to make friends with his new co-workers pretty easily. While working his new job and meeting new people, Nathan met an older man that he seemed to get along pretty well with.
Nathan’s new friend was 55-year-old Robert Degaro. Robert had joined the company only a few months before Nathan, so they were able to spend plenty of time with each other. Ironically, the pair had a very similar sense of humor, so they became pretty close friends in a short amount of time.
Robert and Nathan loved to joke around with one another and tease their other co-workers. As time went on, Nathan and Robert became much closer, and they eventually became friends on Facebook. As soon as they became friends on the social media platform, though, Nathan’s adoptive mother quickly took notice.
One night, Nathan’s adoptive mother took him aside and asked him to sit down. She explained that she had something important that she needed him to see. Nathan didn’t realize it at the time, but his mother was about to show him something that would change his life forever.
Nathan’s adoptive mother pulled up Nathan’s page on Facebook. Soon enough, she was scrolling through his friend’s profiles. Eventually, she reached a photo and showed it to Nathan. As she showed him the picture, she said: “I just want you to know that you’re friends with your birth father on Facebook.”
Nathan couldn’t believe what his mother was saying to him. After all, the picture that she showed him was of his friend from Rock Solid Transport, Robert Degaro. Nathan’s mother had no clue that Nathan worked with Robert and that they saw each other almost every day. At the time, Nathan’s adoptive mother just assumed that they had met one another at a truck stop and become friends on Facebook after that.
After the initial shock of the conversation with his mother wore off, Nathan realized that he needed to tell Robert what he had learned. Considering that many of their conversations took place on Facebook, Nathan figured it would be easier to talk to Robert about the situation through the social media website.
Nathan started the conversation by asking Robert if he knew a certain woman, saying “I just found out that she’s my biological mother. My mom told me last night.” Robert couldn’t believe what he was hearing, especially considering that he actually did know Nathan’s biological mother.
In a strange turn of events, Robert explained that Nathan’s birth mother was actually Robert’s ex-wife. The pair decided to move the conversation to the telephone, where Robert explained to Nathan that his birth mother had gotten pregnant while they had an unstable relationship and they weren’t able to financially support a child.
Nathan then learned that his birth parents found out that they would have to have an emergency C-section and that Nathan would end up being born prematurely. The couple wasn’t sure what kind of health problems Nathan was going to end up having, which could be extremely costly, so they decided to give him up for adoption.
“Back then I wasn’t much of a dad. His biological mom had chosen the adoptive parents because they were somewhat related. Distant cousins, I believe, but I didn’t know that,” said Robert in an interview. He also explained that he had wondered what had happened to his biological son many times throughout his life.
As of August 2018, Robert and Nathan were still trying to work through their shocking realization. It was hard for the pair to understand how they had known each other for two whole years without realizing how similar they really were. Needless to say, Robert is more than proud of Nathan for becoming a successful, hard-working man.
Nathan was beyond excited that his birth father was going to be able to make it to his wedding. Considering that their foundation was already strong, the father and son pair had total confidence that their relationship was going to continue growing. “We’re just taking one day at a time, one mile at a time, as we say,” said Nathan.
