ONE WOMAN'S REMARKABLE DISCOVERY ' I Was Switched at Birth'

ADOPTED AS AN INFANT, DIANE BAZELLA LOCATED THE MOTHER ON HER BIRTH CERTIFICATE, BUT THEIR DNA DIDN'T MATCH. HOW SHE LEARNED THE SHOCKING TRUTH

- JOHNNY DODD

For as long as she can remember, Diane Bazella has been consumed by the dream of spending her birthday with the woman who gave birth to her and placed her for adoption. "I was always thinking about her, wondering what she looked like and if maybe I had just walked past her and never even knew it," recalls Bazella. "And my birthday was the one day out of the year that I knew for sure that we were both thinking about each other."

The long-held dream came true one afternoon last September when Bazella turned 63 and miraculously celebrated her birthday alongside birth mom Sherri Geerts, 81, with a long lunch and shopping in Bazella's hometown of Minnetonka, Minn. "I just always had this knowing that the two of us would meet," says Bazella. "I always knew this day would happen."