Former Miss Nevada, Who Was Abandoned as a Baby, Finally Meets Birth Mom: ‘My Soul Is at Peace’ (Exclusive)

The "anticipation" heading into meeting was "difficult," but Elizabeth Hunterton tells PEOPLE she's glad she "chose courage over fear"

Former Miss Nevada Elizabeth Hunterton finally met her birth mother over the weekend, decades after she was abandoned at an airport as a baby.

The "anticipation" heading into the May 18 reunion was "difficult," Hunterton tells PEOPLE exclusively.

"As my husband and I approached the location where my birth mother was waiting, I stopped walking and wasn’t sure if I could go through with it," she says. "Ultimately, I chose courage over fear and I’m glad I did."

The meet-up was a long time in the making. The pair first exchanged texts and emails in 2020 and had their first phone call this January.

"Our initial embrace was somehow both a lifetime in the making, comfortable and uncomfortable all at once," she tells PEOPLE. "We stared at each other quite a bit and attempted to do so without the other noticing, but we were both definitely doing it. Our resemblance isn’t physical, rather in heart and demeanor."

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Though DNA databases helped her track down her biological father in 2018, she learned he had died years earlier. In March 2020, her online DNA profile got a few hits and she reached out to three different women thinking they could be her biological mom, but they weren't a match.

Then after connecting with a biological second cousin, she was finally able to reach her birth mom, whose identity she still has not publicly disclosed.

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Hunterton, who was crowned as Miss Nevada in 2004 and has worked for the organization as CEO, was adopted by a White family in Reno, PEOPLE previously reported. Although she was raised in a loving home and loves her parents dearly, she spent much of her life uncertain of her own identity.

Before meeting her birth mom, Hunterton says she asked her adoptive mom if there was any message that she wanted her to "pass on." In response, Hunterton says she replied, "please thank her for you."

"When I told my birth mother this she teared up and said, 'I have the utmost love, respect and appreciation for your [adoptive] mom. She gave you what I couldn’t,' ” Hunterton adds. "That was a really beautiful moment."

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Hunterton previously speculated that her mom's friend tried to take her to an adoption agency, but "the adoption agencies wouldn't take me because it was harder to place a Black baby." (She previously told PEOPLE she has been unable to track down the woman.)

Now, she says she's certain it wasn't her birth mother who left her.

"Not only did she say as much, she also didn’t match a single witness description," Hunterton tells PEOPLE. "But hearing from her what happened after she learned that her friend had abandoned me at the airport rather than the adoption agency as they’d agreed, was heartbreaking. The pain of her friend’s betrayal is still there."

Related: Woman Finds Biological Mom 50 Years After Being Placed for Adoption

Hunterton — who had been discussing her journey of self-discovery and counting down the days to meeting her birth mom on TikTok — says that since they connected in person, "my soul is at peace."

"Now that I know where nature and nurture begin and end, I’m certain that it’s not nature or nurture, rather it’s both…plus free will," she adds.

She continues, "My biological parents made me what I am, while my adoptive parents and choices made me who I am."

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Read the original article on People.