MOSELLE — Tears stream down Lena Jerlitschka’s smooth cheeks as she recalls the worst day of her life.

Sitting at the dining table decorated for Thanksgiving with colorful gourds and flowers, Jerlitschka, 84, is overcome with a jumble of emotions over an event that occurred 55 years ago in Kaiserslautern, Germany. It was the day she gave her 6-week-old daughter, Margariete, to an American soldier and his wife to raise.

“I went into the room and picked her up from her crib,” said Jerlitschka, glancing toward her daughter. “As I held her in my arms, she opened her little eyes and looked up at me. It was a moment I never forgot. I could never talk about it with others. I’ve kept it hidden in my heart all these years.”

The time was post World War II Germany. Jerlitschka was a single mother of a toddler, working as a nanny on an American Air Force Base. The new baby’s father was an American soldier transferred back to the United States before Jerlitschka knew she was pregnant.

To complicate matters for the struggling young mother, the new baby was sickly. At six weeks old, Margariete weighed only five pounds. Jerlitschka knew her meager salary and small home would not provide the best upbringing for the tiny baby.

“I had not so much money and I had one small daughter already,” she says. “I cried when I talked to Family Services at the base, but I wanted her to have a nice life. I told the lady I wanted an American couple to have her. I had heard they loved their children and took good care to them.”

Determined to make sure her daughter went to a loving home instead of an orphanage, Jerlitschka asked to meet with any couple interested in adoption. Her motherly instinct caused her to instantly reject the first couple who came to see the baby.

“The lady, she didn’t even look at the baby,” she says, grimacing at the memory. “And the man, he asked so many questions about my family, going back several generations. All he cared was that my family was OK. I told the lady in Family Services, ‘No way am I going to let them take my baby. You need to bring someone else.’”

That “someone else” was an American soldier and his wife who had been told they couldn’t have children. Jerlitschka knew right away Victoria and Barney Barnett were the perfect couple to raise Margariete.

“When Mrs. Barney (Victoria) came in, she looked at Margariete and said, ‘My God, what a beautiful baby!’” I knew right then these were the people to have my baby.”

Jerlitschka says she “cried and cried” on the day the Barnetts took Margariete to their home. Getting reassurance they would take good care of her baby made the terrible day more bearable.

“Mrs. Barney, she put her arms around me and said, ‘All of your life, know that I will be good to your baby.’ And I’ve been holding onto that promise all of these years,” said Jerlitschka.

Almost as heartbreaking as giving up Margariete was explaining to her other daughter what had happened to her baby sister. When she returned from giving the baby to the Barnetts, Rosalinde asked the question that still causes her to weep.

“She asked, ‘Where’s the baby?’ All I could do was put my arms around her and tell her she was my baby now,” said Jerlitschka, choking back tears. “I cried very hard that day and I never felt better. I prayed to God every night all these years that she would understand.”

Her initial wish for Margariete, called Margaret by her new family, to have a better life did indeed come true. The Barnett family lived in Germany briefly before transferring back to the U.S., where they moved around to different Air Force bases. When she was 10, her father retired and the family settled in Biloxi.

From the time she was very young, Harless knew she was adopted. Her parents were “very loving and honest about the adoption,” she says. “My parents told me they had picked me out of a lot of children, unlike other parents who had no choice in what they get.”

Harless grew up in a normal, middle class family that included a younger brother, Barney, Jr., the child the Barnetts thought they couldn’t have. As she grew older, she became curious about her biological mother but didn’t look for her out of respect for her parents, with whom she shared a close relationship.

“I always thought about my mother and prayed for her,” said Harless, reaching over and touching her mother’s arm. “I asked God to let her know I loved her for what she did and that I turned out okay.”

However, it wasn’t until she was in her 30s and raising her own three children with her husband Johnny that she began to look for her biological mother.

“I checked with the German Consultate, but found nothing at the time,” she said. “Then last fall, I filled out a questionnaire on Adoption.com, telling them my mother’s name was Maria Magdalena Jerlitschka and where she was born. Again, I never thought anything would come of it.”

Something did come of the questionnaire – a wonderful “thing” that forever changed their lives.

After a series of delays and miscommunications, Harless connected with a lady named Angela Shelley in Germany, whose job was to reunite Americans with their German birth parents. Harless finally allowed herself to believe she might meet her biological mother.

“I was thrilled but also scared to death,” said Harless. “I had spent my entire life thinking about my mother and praying she would somehow know I was all right with her decision to give me up. It was unbelievable to think that I might finally meet her.”

Harless put aside her fears and reached out to the mother she had never met. A letter that took “three hours or more, at least, to write” was mailed March 21 from Moselle to a lady she only knew as “Maria.” She later learned her mother was called “Lena,” a derivative of Magdalena.

“Dear Maria," read the first letter. "There is so much to say and yet I don’t know where to begin…I have thought of you all through my life — especially when I had my first child and on my birthday. Family relationships have always been very important to me and I hope that you and I can start our own relationship…Your Daughter, Margaret.”

Jerlitschka then takes up the story. She recounts how, on the day she received the first call from Shelley, an earlier call had left her devastated.

“My granddaughter’s husband called and said I owed $900 to the gas company,” she said. “I thought this was the worst day of my life. I wondered why I was still alive. Then I got the call about Margariete and it became the best day of my life.”

Shelley first asked Jerlitschka if she wanted to be “found” by the daughter she had given up 55 years ago. Her response was, “Yes, yes, yes! I’ve been waiting for this phone call for a long time!”

During conversations with Harless, Shelly learned the wife and mother of two sons and one daughter liked to cook. When she relayed this information to Jerlitschka, her motherly intuition kicked in, just as it had 55 years ago.

“When she said Margaret likes to cook, I began to cry and said, ‘That’s my daughter! That’s my daughter! This time I know it’s true,’” she said.

The first time they spoke on the phone is a day neither will forget. Prior to making the call, Harless had learned three words in German, “My dearest mother.” After a lifetime of longing for the daughter she gave up, they were the three sweetest words Jerlitschka had ever heard.

“My sister tried to get me to call her, but I was not ready; I was too emotional,” she said. “When we talked and she said those words to me, all I could say was, ‘My baby, my baby. I’m so happy you found me. I could not find you.’ I will never forget that day.”

Several heartfelt letters and another special phone call followed from a daughter to her mother on a day they had never celebrated.

“She called to tell me ‘Happy Mother’s Day,’ and to say when she was in church that day, she was thinking of me,” said Jerlitschka “On that same day, I was in my church thinking of her. That’s how it has been - we do the same things only a mother and daughter would do.”

Jerlitschka had her chance to repay the Mother’s Day call on July 10, Harless’ 55th birthday. When she answered the phone in her Moselle home, her mother began singing “Happy Birthday” in her soft voice. It’s a memory that still brings mother and daughter to tears.

“Every year of her life, I always thought of her on this day,” said Jerlitschka “This year, I woke up and I knew it was a special day. I could finally do something I could never do before. That was singing ‘Happy Birthday’ to my daughter.”

Mother and daughter met for the first time in July at a small train station in Germany. Harless recalls stepping off the train and searching for the face she had only glimpsed in photos. She remembers seeing Jerlitschka standing on the pavement with a flower in her hand. The rest is a blur until she was in her mother’s arms.

“We ran to each other and hugged and cried,” she says. “That’s the first memory I have after stepping off the train.”

The two week visit was filled with meeting her large German family, including an aunt and uncle, cousins, her half sister and nieces Tanja and Nicole, who was raised by Jerlitschka. Harless was still in Germany when her mother celebrated her 84th birthday July 25.

Photos of family dinners taken during the visit show a striking resemblance between Harless and her German relatives. Both Harless and Jerlitschka are amazed by the physical and emotional similarities.

“We share so many traits, including our strong faith in God, our love of family and our love of cooking,” said Harless. “From the moment I got to Germany, there was not one awkward moment between us or with anyone else in the family. Everything was wonderful. I truly felt like I was home.”

Jerlitschka flew to the U.S. last month for a three-month visit in Harless’ Moselle home. Situated in the midst of tall pines surrounded by over 300 sprawling acres, Margaret and Johnny Harless’ cozy home is a continent away from everything Jerlitschka has known for over 80 years. But Jerlitschka appears at home underneath the south Mississippi pines.

As the last rays of warm afternoon sunshine filter through the trees, Jerlitschka searches for a word to describe her daughter’s home. A sparkle lights up her eyes and she smiles as it finally comes to her. She calls it, “paradise.”

“It is so cold in Germany, even this time of year,” says Jerlitschka, speaking English that is halting, but surprisingly distinct for someone who’s spoken German most of her life. “It is so warm and wonderful here.”

Jerlitschka has led a contented, but hard life that has included illness and raising her granddaughter Nicole due to “troubles in Rosalinde’s home.” While raising the little girl that reminded her of “little Margariete,” she worked at a German car factory and as a nanny for American couples. This job helped improve her English, another way she feels God prepared her for communicating with her American daughter.

One of the favorite moments upon entering her daughter’s home state for the first time was glimpsing the Mississippi River, known to her from the film, “Tom Sawyer.” Driving into Mississippi from Dallas, they stopped on the outskirts of Vicksburg. Jerlitschka was moved to tears by the river’s beauty, she says.

Another moment she’ll never forget is taking Communion at Parkways Heights Methodist Church in Hattiesburg by her daughter’s side. A devout Catholic, she is happy to know her daughter possesses a strong faith.

The Harless’ have shown her parts of the state, including the Mississippi Gulf Coast where Margaret once lived. Jerlitschka was interested in seeing where her daughter grew up, but was not prepared for what she saw.

“I thought the water would be rough like the North Sea,” she says, demonstrating the rolling waves with her hand. “But it was very nice.”

A trip to Bellingrath Gardens is planned before Christmas to view the holiday lights. She enjoys traveling, but says favorite days are those spent with her daughter performing simple chores around the house.

“We both like to be outdoors and to cook, so that’s something we do every day that we’re at home; spend time together in the kitchen,” said Harless.

The Harless’ and Jerlitschka traveled to Disney World this week to spend their first Thanksgiving together at the resort. After Christmas, Harless will fly back to Germany with her mother. The day they say good-bye is one both dread.

“I know I will cry almost as much as the day I gave her up,” says Jerlitschka. “Now I know what a rich mother and grandmother I am.”

Both mother and daughter are amazed they spent so many years praying an almost-identical prayer. They both prayed the other would know they were loved and at peace with the adoption.

“Everything that has happened is a story of faith,” says Harless. “It shows that when you pray for things and put them in God’s hands, the results are powerful. I am awed and humbled by the way He has worked in our lives.”

Jerlitschka said it best in one of her first letters written in April to the daughter she gave up but had always carried in her heart.

“It is so helpful to believe in God; He is guiding us through our life and he shows us the right path, even so it might not be the easiest way to go…Ich liebe euch Alle! Deine Mutter (I love you all! Your Mother)