A Lake Worth man who was adopted as a child never knew where or who his real mother was.
But thanks to the 'new' woman in his life and social media, he tracked her down.
A picture is all James Boyette had of his real mother.
"I'm a strong believer in God, if it was meant to be, it's meant to be," he said.
Karly Blas gave him up through a closed adoption in West Palm Beach in 1992. She was young and although she fought with the idea of putting him up for adoption, she knew it was for the best.
"Putting myself in their shoes, it's kind of crazy," said Boyette.
Twenty-four years later, James now has two kids of his own and is engaged. He and his fiancée, Kara Messina, believed it was time to find his mom.
"I knew this could work," said Messina. "I was a little detective. So I made a flyer one night and that's how it started."
Messina posted the flyer on Facebook and it took off.
"Everybody was sharing it on Facebook and it was unreal," said Boyette.
Only six days and over 1,000 shares later, the right person saw it.
"I was about to give up because it was taking too long for my liking," said Messina. "But a lady reached out to me. She emailed me and said, 'I have some information for you, please call me. She knew just enough to get us a hold of his aunt who was in that picture."
The woman called herself a "search angel" and volunteered part-time helping people find their long lost relatives.
One thing led to another and Messina was able to connect with Blas' sister, the other woman in the picture James had of himself at birth. From there, they finally spoke to Blas herself.
After giving birth to Boyette in Florida, Blas moved around several times and was back in her native Hawaii.
"His mother had been looking for him for years and we had no idea," said Messina.
She even had his baby picture on her living room wall. Thousands of miles away, James finally saw his mother though facetime a few days after connecting on Facebook.
"As soon as we started talking, five minutes in it was like we were always together," he said.
Boyette grew up an only child but finding Blas also found him seven new siblings.
"I'm the oldest of them. At that point, that was where I got really really emotional because I always for the longest time, wanted a brother or sister," he said.
Boyette and Messina have a message for others hoping to find their family, too.
"It takes a little bit of time to share something but that little big of time can change someone's life. And that's what happened to me," Boyette said.
"Don't give up," said Messina. "Anything is possible. And you won't know unless you try."
James grew up thinking he was half-Cuban, half-Hawaiian based on what little information he had about his real parents.
It turns out he's not Cuban at all -- he's full Hawaiian. And his original name was Lorenzo.
His new family plans to fly him out to Hawaii very soon to finally meet them face-to-face.