Abandoned as a baby, woman uses Facebook in search of birth mother

She was abandoned as a baby and left outside a hospital. But now that she's grown, she's trying to track down her birth mother, and she's taking to the internet to do it.

Heather Kane posted a picture on the 6abc Action News Facebook page hoping the long virtual arms of social media would help her reach her birth mother.

She's known from a very young age she was adopted, but the circumstances surrounding her birth were a bit more complicated.

We spoke to Heather about why at 28-years-old she decided to launch this emotional journey.

"It's not just my story, it's her too," she said.

And Heather Kane only knows part of that story - one that her adoptive mother, Karen, began telling her when Heather was 15.

Heather says, "She told me, and was crying and she said there was a little girl left outside of the hospital and that was you."

The hospital was Grandview and the staff had received an anonymous phone call was left outside the Emergency Room wrapped in this red sweatshirt. She was hypothermic but quickly nursed back to health.

Heather's adoptive mother Karen Kane was hesitant to share the story with her, but Heather's reaction at 15-years-old was unexpected.

Karen tells us, "She was like, cool! I was on television? She thought it was the greatest thing."

But as Heather entered her adult years, birthdays were clouded by sadness.

"It's like a big empty space," Heather said.

Her mother supported to her to try to find the woman who gave birth to her, regardless of her own apprehensions.

Karen says, "Would I be a little threatened? Honestly? Sure. I am her mom but somebody else may come along, and wonder maybe things will change."

"They will always be my mom and my dad. That's it...that's not going to change," Heather said.

Until recently, Heather wasn't emotionally ready for what a search may find, but both she and her mother hope this post will help her find the missing pieces of her own personal story and help her birth mother find peace with her own.

"She did it, you (Heather's birth mother) did it out of love and concern for her well-being and nobody could ask for more than that," says Karen.

"I don't have any ill will towards this person at all. Nobody knows her circumstances. So, it wasn't like she left me there hoping someone would find me. She made sure someone would find me, and that's... I think that's awesome."

On Thursday morning Heather received an email from a woman who saw her Facebook post writing Heather that she is her mother.

The two have been corresponding all day and the woman has agreed to take a DNA test.

Heather says she is cautiously optimistic. So, of course we will keep you updated on this story.