ZELIENOPLE — Sometimes the best Christmas presents come late.

That was the case for Bob and Nancy Hesch, who placed twin daughters up for adoption in October 1971, a couple of weeks after Shadyside Hospital helped deliver them. Pennsylvania state law at the time prevented prospective adoptive parents from entering a hospital to adopt children, so the event occurred outside the building.

“So, it wasn’t like the hospital was kidnapping our children,” Nancy Hesch explained about that law.

That left the parking lot as one of the better options for the twins’ transfer, a condition the Hesches said only added to their pain.

“I don’t think it would have changed our decision at all, had we known that we had to do that, because we really felt that this was our choice, and this is what we were doing,” Nancy said.

No one in the Hesches’ world, except the couple themselves, knew about that decision for 48 years.

Then on Jan. 11, 2019, the couple got a Christmas card in their mailbox. A note inside the card, which their now-adult birth daughter Judy Deer had written, informed them that the birth certificates of her and her sister, Janet Holland, matched those of the Hesches.

Nancy opened and read the letter while Bob was in his home office, then tossed it in the trash.

“I always thought that I wasn’t worthy,” she said. “It was a conscious decision not to follow through with this, because I didn’t think I was worthy.”

Then she called for Bob, who had been watching the news, and entered the room ranting about the latest events.

Nancy retrieved the note from the trash and sobbed.

“I wasn’t ranting that badly,” Bob said he thought at first.

He then read the note and cried.

January is a tough month every year for the Hesches, whose son, Robert, had died from a heart attack when he was 19 on Jan. 11, 1994.

So, the Christmas card came around the anniversary of their son’s death.

Nancy said she felt she needed to think about responding to Judy’s letter. Wonderful people had obviously raised Deer and Holland, she said.

Fortunately, he told her this after Nancy had reached the same decision.

The Hesches shared the news, which only they and their birth daughters had known, with their other son, Christopher, while on a trip to New York City to visit with their grandson, Kane.

Over time, the Hesches exchanged emails with their daughters to learn about each other’s lives.

Ultimately, they decided to meet at Berkeley Lutheran Church in Pittsburgh, where Holland serves as a bookkeeper. The Hesches, too, knew the church, because they had friends who attended it.

“So the day came,” Nancy said. “We were nervous.”

They gathered flowers before driving there to meet.

Bob put out his hand and told Nancy, “Just take my hand. We’ve got this.”

“That was one of Bob’s favorite phrases throughout this whole story,” Nancy said. “‘It’s all going to be good — we’ve got this.’”

They opened the front door the church, unsure of whether to knock.

Deer and Holland, for their part, said they also were both exhilarated and anxious about how the meeting would go, unsure of whether to open or shut the door as the Hesches made their way toward them from a distance.

But when the door opened, Deer and Holland ran over to them.

“It was like, kids on Christmas,” she said. “It really was … Just the electricity in the air was very palpable … Then it was just a big giant hug of people, hugging and crying.”

Deer, Holland and the Hesches exchanged roses, which the Hesches now preserve behind glass in their home at Lutheran SeniorLife Passavant Community. They have lovingly cataloged these tokens, along with the Christmas card, the envelope in which it had arrived and countless pictures of the reunited birth family.

After meeting for the first time, they all went to Holland’s home and met their daughters’ husbands, J.R. Deer and Scott Holland, talking over dinner for hours. Soon the Hesches also would meet the grandchildren: 15-year-old Riley Deer, 17-year-old Danielle Deer, 17-year-old Nicholas Holland and 20-year-old Shane Holland.

Then Deer and Holland met their biological brother, Christopher.

“They literally fought each other to see who would get up there first for the first hug,” Nancy said.

“And ‘Toph’ said, ‘The first hug was wonderful, and the hugs have gone on forever, and it just seems like we’ve known each other forever,’” she said, referring to Christopher.

“That’s just heartbreaking to me,” said Holland about her parents’ willingness to bring them out into the Shadyside Hospital parking lot themselves, 48 years before.

“I couldn’t even imagine having to be the one to go back and carry us out,” Holland said.

Holland said, having children herself makes that perspective even harder to imagine.

Both Holland and Deer said they took the most pride in introducing their birthparents to their own families — particularly their children.

But they took pride in learning about their birthparents, too, about who they were as people.

“I think it was amazing that they were still together,” Deer said of the Hesches. “They had us — gave us up for adoption, and were still together after all these years. That connection, that was great to hear, that they went through such an experience together early on and then stayed together.”

Holland also said the Hesches’ choice to make an adoption plan was an important one.

“Just for them to see that they made the right decision, and that we grew up very similar than our brothers did,” Holland said. “So that was also a good thing, because had we been in different economical situations, this story may have been different.”

Holland said many adopted friends of hers have reconnected with their birthparents using a variety of resources, including companies such as 23andMe.

“And most of them are not good experiences, so for ours to be such a fairy tale story, it’s just amazing to me,” she said. “And Nancy always has a smile on her face when we’re all together, especially now that they’ve moved up here and we get together more often. And she comes to the kids’ events … I couldn’t have imagined it better than it is.”

Deer and Holland’s adoptive parents, Richard and Judy Smolski, died in 2002 and 2000, respectively.

“And maybe, when she got older, she would have been OK with it,” Deer said of the sisters meeting their biological parents, “but she was like mama bear and wanted to protect her cubs. This would not have flown, I don’t think.”

“But having known them now, I’m sure she’s smiling and proud of where this has gone,” Deer said.

“I’m grateful that when we speak of the story that Nancy always, always makes a point to thank Richard and Judy Smolski for their raising us,” Deer said. “I truly appreciate that. That’s the mother in her. recognizing that there’s a big part of us that’s no longer here.”

Deer said she and Holland mourn their brother Rob, whom they never got to meet.

“I think this is one of the hardest things,” Deer said. “I’ll probably cry when I think about it,” she said, crying. “I cry when I think about Rob. And having someone that was so young and not having a chance to get to know him. That was a tough one to read about.”

Deer said she was glad to talk about Rob though, even with the pain that came with that knowledge.

“And the Hesches will tell you that they want to talk about the people who have passed,” Deer said.

People think it’s hard to talk about the dead, so they avoid the topic, but it’s good to hear stories about Rob, Deer said.

“It was maybe like healing in some sense,” Deer said. “It helps keep their memories alive.”