Christine Weaver constantly questioned her origins for more than five decades, never knowing the identity of her birth parents — until earlier this year when her search for answers came to a happy end.

She began the search for her birth parents in 1989, and one failed attempt after another over a 34-year period finally came to an end earlier this year when she was reunited with her biological mother — along with the bonus of two biological sisters.

Weaver was born in 1967 in Salamanca, N.Y., and given the name Lynn Marie. Her mother was unable to care for her and she was placed into the adoption system at 5 months old. She remained there until she was almost 2, when she was adopted by a Bradford couple, Delores and John Weaver.

During her childhood, her parents had explained to her at a young age that she was adopted, but that fact did not diminish the joy she experienced growing up in Bradford.

“They told me that my mother loved me and couldn’t keep me,” Weaver said. “As I got older, more information was fed to me. I was told my father was in a band and my mother played guitar. I was also given their nationality. What stuck out to me was the “Dutch” nationality of one of my parents. I thought maybe I was born out of an Amish community? My imagination ran rampant.”

Weaver graduated from Bradford Area High School in 1985 and was Miss Bradford in 1984 — going on to compete in the Miss McKean County pageant, in which she was the runner up. Growing up in town Weaver joked that her and her adopted sister, Cheryl, were referred to as “the Weaver girls” wherever they went, due to the popularity of their father John and similar appearances.

With a head still full of questions and imaginative dreams of what her biological parents were like, she headed off to college in the fall of ‘85. She finished up her college education and ended up living just outside Salt Lake City, Utah, today, in West Jordan.

While in her 20s, Weaver decided to begin the search for her biological mother in 1989. She had had some clues to work with from information shared by her adoptive parents — for instance, for the first time in her life she learned from a locket that her name was not originally Christine. The locket, given to her adoptive mother by the adoption agency had her birth name Lynn Marie and the year 1967 inscribed. When Weaver decided it was time for the search to begin — her mother, sister and friends all decided to lend a hand in the search.

“My mother contacted the agency and was given the ‘non-identifying’ information they had on file. The records were sealed,” explained Weaver. “We went to the Salamanca Library and searched through the baby announcements and couldn’t find anything. … We concluded that the birth mother had kept the announcement private. In 1992, I had a boyfriend who hired an investigator to find my birth mother.”

Unfortunately, not even the private investigator could locate her birth mother.

“I continued my search for my birth mother for decades,” Weaver said. “I joined all the online adoption forums and requested the identifiers from the New York vital records department in hopes the records would be unsealed.”

But it was all to no avail.

Finally, after decades of searching, Weaver happened to read about new legislation in New York allowing adoptees to receive a copy of their original birth certificates. She immediately went to her computer and ordered it online.

“I received my hand-delivered envelope on a Friday. I found my birth mother within an hour!” Weaver exclaimed before continuing, “here’s how it went — the certificate had both my mother and father’s name with my mother’s address in Olean (N.Y.). I googled both names. I found my father’s obituary and read the family names.

“I entered my mother’s name to search for her on Facebook. I wasn’t completely sure I found her,” Weaver said. “She was the only name that populated from Olean (N.Y.) but she abbreviated her first name. I started looking through her pictures. There was one picture that made my jaw drop. I’m talking to my dad and sister in Bradford at the same time. Telling them what I’m looking at.

“I texted my sister the picture to get her opinion,” Weaver said. “My sister said, ‘My God! I thought that was a picture of you!.’

“The picture was of a woman who looked to be younger than me but we looked alike. I took note of her name and went to her profile. I messaged them both through Facebook a heartfelt inquiry and waited while I still had my Bradford family on the phone.”

Weaver said the woman on Facebook who had resembled herself did in fact message her back with, “Your search is over. We have been looking for you!” And then she also added, “‘Are you sitting down?”

Weaver said, “I immediately sat. She continued, ‘You have two biological sisters.’”

The woman from Facebook was Weaver’s biological sister, one of two, and Weaver said when she first saw the photograph her intuition told her the woman was special.

“I cried with the unexpected revelation and the overwhelming happiness I was feeling. She asked if I would be able to talk with her and my birth mother in an hour — I live 2,200 miles away and was ready to board the plane right then,” Weaver said with a laugh.

Soon after that initial contact Weaver was able to virtually meet with her two biological sisters, Evelyn and Diane, as well as her mother, Linda Stevens, through video chat. Weaver described the experience as transcendent, “an experience of indescribably emotions of a facet of happiness that I had never ever felt.”

Weaver then planned a trip to Olean about one month after that initial conversation.

“We all met up and it was the most beautiful reunion,” she said. “My father and sister joined me in this adventure. Our families meshed and expanded. My mother, who passed, had said one time — ‘If we ever find your birth mother I’d give her the biggest hug and thank her with all my heart for giving me the most amazing blessing of having you.’ I was finally able to share this with the mother who gave her child to another mother who loved that child unconditionally and made so happy.”

Growing up in Bradford, Weaver said, people often didn’t believe that her adopted sister was not her biological sister due to their similar features and red hair. So when she met her biological sisters she was in “amazement” with all their similarities.

“We couldn’t stop staring at each other!” Weaver exclaimed.

She said her youngest sister, Evelyn, is an art teacher while she herself studied fine arts with a dual in childhood education to be an art teacher in college. “Evelyn is also super funny and has the same humor as me and my adoptive family,” Weaver said.

Weaver said Diane is the middle child, describing her as an entrepreneur who “has a beautiful store in Maryland called Mount Airy Commons. She has that hustle that I’ve always had.”

As for her biological mother, Weaver said that people always warned her that if she ever did find her that it would, in essence, be like meeting a stranger. So Weaver was not sure how to feel before the meeting.

“The connection I felt with her was instant,” Weaver said. “I worried a lot about whether or not she’d like me. But, when I saw her and looked into her eyes… I saw pure love and felt it in my heart.

“She said, ‘There’s nothing stronger than a mother and a child’s bond regardless of separation,’ and it’s absolutely true,” Weaver said.

Meanwhile, her adoptive father and sister have been right by her side upon every step of this process, and very supportive.

“Both families are open arms and open hearts,” Weaver said.

As for future plans, in the long term, Weaver said she will move back to the East Coast sometime this year, “to be closer to both of my families.”

And for the immediate future: “We are planning a girls’ trip soon. We are all looking forward to this uncharted chapter of our lives. … It feels surreal at times that I have these three wonderful women who I love wholeheartedly.

“I am truly blessed beyond measure.”