Family reunited after 21 years

A pair of Dexter women have found a sister they had not seen since she was a baby, 21 years ago.

"The last time we saw her before yesterday was when she was seven weeks old," said Shelly Reeves on Friday morning.

Reeves, who together with her other sister Leisa Rolling and father Charles Steen, met with Minnie Marie Steen of Ward, Ark. in Kennett on Thursday, said the search for the sister had been ongoing for years. "As we tried to find her," she said, "we found she had gone from foster home to foster home to foster home."

Reeves added the trail had led the family to Kennett, Alabama and various other places. But it also revealed a bit of information that no one in her family, including the father who was leading the search.

"I don't know where it got started," Reeves said, "but we kept hearing Minnie had been told: 'well, your father doesn't want anything to do with you.'"

Reeves added that, for whatever reason, it appeared that every time Minnie got to know anyone who knew the Steen family, "they moved her further and further away."

In addition, she said, information she, her sister and her father were able to find indicated Minnie Steen had been adopted, but no one would tell them the adopted name. "And they wouldn't tell us what state she was in," Reeves said, "because of privacy laws."

So it took 21 years to find her.

But Minnie Steen was looking, too, Reeves said. "Of course, she didn't know our last names or our married names," Reeves said, "so it was a lot harder for her, even looking on the Internet."

On the other hand, Reeves said, Steen did at least have a starting point. "She was in Ward, Ark.," she said, "and she remembered one of the foster parents in Kennett."

Finding the foster parent through the Internet, Reeves said, Steen arranged to meet the parent. "And after she got off the phone with Minnie," Reeves said, "she got on the phone and called up Minnie's brother -- not our brother -- and told him she'd been found, and was coming to town."

The brother then contacted Charles Steen to say Minnie had been found. "So [Dad] made a phone call to us and told us," Reeves said.

So the family reunited at the Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant in Kennett on Thursday afternoon. "And when we first walked in," Reeves said, "as soon as she turned around, I knew she looked like our stepmom.

"And I just grabbed her and hugged her."

Reeves, 29, said she had never seen her father crying. "Yesterday, I saw him crying," she said.

"He prayed to God every single day that that he would get all three of his daughters together."

Becoming teary-eyed, Reeves continued by saying Minnie Steen had told her the only thing she had ever wanted for her birthday, for Christmas or for any other gift-giving occasion was for her family to come back to her. "That's what she said yesterday," Reeves said: "'this is better than Christmas.'"

"She never gave up hope," added Rolling.

"She always knew we were there," Reeves said.

And the reunion provided a practical reward for Steen, from her father, who had been obliged to give Minnie up to foster care when the girl was two. "He had her Social Security card ever since he gave her up," Reeves said. "So she couldn't even get a driver's license or anything.

"And my dad gave her that Social Security card yesterday."

After the four-hour reunion ended, Reeves said, the family members exchanged phone numbers, addresses and e-mail addresses. She said they agreed to reunite on a regular basis, at holidays, at least.

"It's amazing," Reeves concluded. "We never gave up hope, she never gave up hope, my dad never gave up hope."

gexelby@dailystatesman.com