‘Long Lost Family’ Exclusive Sneak Peek: Woman Forced to Give up Baby at 15 Searches for Her Daughter Decades Later

Decades after being forced to place her baby for adoption after becoming pregnant as a teen, Long Lost Family will attempt to help Heidi track down the young woman who is her daughter. Ahead of Friday’s all-new episode of the hit TLC reality show, kicking off at 10 p.m. ET, PopCulture.com has a sneak peek of Heidi’s emotional story.

“I was 15 when I became pregnant, and my boyfriend, Greg, was my first love,” she recalls. “I thought I would have a baby and be a wife and a mother in my youth, you know, and my young mind.”

That idyllic future wasn’t in the cards for Heidi, however, all at the prodding of her own mom and dad. “My parents had made the decision to give this baby up for adoption,” she continues. “They allowed me to think I made the decision, but they actually made the decision to let her go.”

It’s an emotional experience, looking back on the moment she gave birth to her daughter. “When I held her for the first time it was a feeling that is really indescribable,” Heidi explains. “This precious, precious baby girl that I had created, she was perfect in every way.”

All who was in the hospital the day she gave birth was Heidi’s mother and sister Robin, who also can’t hide how difficult the experience was for her when asked why she decided to give the baby girl a tiny teddy bear in the hospital, despite knowing she wouldn’t get to watch her grow up.

“I just wanted her to have something from her Aunt Robin,” she remembers.

Her eyes welling up with tears, Heidi says of coping with the pain at such a young age, “I chose to think of it as she was my child, but she was not my child to keep. And that my job after having her and giving her a healthy little start was done.”

Looking for her daughter now, Heidi has a simple wish for coming back into her life so many years later.

“If I learned nothing more, I would like to know that she had a good life, and that my letting her go gave her that opportunity,” she says. “And that she is happy and that she is healthy.”

Don’t miss the rest of Heidi’s emotional story on Long Lost Family airing Friday at 10 p.m. ET on TLC.

Photo credit: TLC