By: By Jennifer Willems

Before her twin sons were placed for adoption, Ann Williams held one in each arm and kissed them on the forehead.

It would be 36 years before the Peoria woman embraced them again, but she’s thankful for the opportunity to have them back in her arms and back in her life.

“They grew up on a farm outside Mason City. I thought there’s nothing else I could have asked for — they were raised on a farm, they were raised together and they were raised Catholic,” Williams told The Catholic Post.

The United States is also thankful for their lives. Robb and Todd Mitchell, now 39, made the Army their career and have served three tours of duty in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Robb is a lieutenant colonel and works at the Pentagon. He is married to a woman from Glasford and Williams is “Grandma Ann” to his son and daughter.

Due for a promotion in the next year, Todd is currently a major and heads a command post in Maine. Williams was delighted to be present when he was married last year in Florida.

She had no idea so many blessings were in store for all of them when she discovered she was pregnant during the fall semester of her sophomore year at Illinois State University in Normal.

NEVER CONSIDERED ABORTION
“Informally engaged” to the twins’ father, Williams said her parents were against the relationship and upset by the pregnancy.

“I was terrified. I was absolutely terrified,” she recalled. “I felt that I was all alone.”

While abortion was available it was not yet legal in 1971, and it was never an option for Williams.

“I can remember having such feelings of guilt,” she said. “A short time after I gave birth I thought, ‘Yes, I’m guilty about an awful lot, but thank God I never even thought about an abortion.'”

Her parents arranged for her to go to a home for unwed mothers in Springfield, but Williams waited until classes ended in the spring. She wanted to be a teacher and feared losing her scholarship if she left early.

“I had to stick it out. That was the worst of it,” she told The Post, noting that with only a few close friends in on the secret she lived “like a hermit.”

“Since I was pregnant with twins I was bigger. You can’t imagine how I looked by the time May rolled around,” she said. “It was pretty hard to hide.”

Going to the Catholic home in Springfield was a positive experience in many ways. Williams said she didn’t have to hide anymore and was able to make friends in the two months she was there.

Robb and Todd were born on July 10, 1972, and she saw them briefly before they went to Catholic Social Services in Springfield for adoption.

“I thought about saying no, but then I decided I would always wonder if I said no,” Williams said. “They took me into a separate room and I had one in one arm and the other in the other arm. It was pretty tough. I just kissed each of them on the forehead.”

NEVER FORGOT
After graduating from ISU Williams taught at schools in Peoria, including Father Sweeney School. She has taught math and social studies at St. Mary’s School in Kickapoo for six years.

She also went on to marry and have two sons, Kevin, now 34, and Jeff, now 32, and enjoyed being involved in their lives and her home, friends and hobbies. The marriage didn’t work out, however, and after her divorce in 1996 Williams went into financial planning to earn enough money to support herself and put her sons through college.

She never forgot Robb and Todd, however.

“I can’t tell you how many times I thought of them, prayed for them and wondered how things were going in their lives,” Williams said.

But when Catholic Social Services contacted her in 1994 and told her the twins were interested in reconnecting with her, she decided the time wasn’t right. The counselor asked for a medical history and some basic information about her and told her Robb and Todd were going into the military.

“I left it with the hope that I could get my life squared away and get back to them,” Williams said.

That time came three years ago, after she made a Cursillo weekend and met and married her husband, Lee. A member of St. Ann’s Parish in Peoria, she has been involved in several Cursillo weekends since then and she credits that spiritual renewal for her reunion with her sons.

TIME WAS RIGHT
“One beautiful, beautiful summer morning I was sitting on the sun porch and I heard God saying, ‘Ann, it’s time,'” Williams said. “It was July 10 and I had given them up 35 years before on that day.”

She was nervous about how her family would react, but Lee told her everyone would accept it and love her the same way they did before. So she contacted Catholic Social Services in Springfield.

She worried that Robb and Todd would not want to see her since she had turned them down and wondered if there would be any residual anger or resentment. In the end “I was ready for that. This was something that God wanted me to do.”

The twins were receptive to contact and slowly they all got to know each other through letters, e-mails and phone calls. Eventually they set a meeting and while the first few moments were tense, “they blew us away,” Williams said.

“We talked and laughed and pulled out pictures,” she told The Post, noting that the photo album they shared with her had been made by their adoptive mother. She was the one who encouraged them to reach out to Williams.

Not only have the women had a chance to meet and thank one another for the gift of Robb and Todd’s lives, but they have become good friends, according to Williams.

“When I finally told my family members they were amazing,” she said. “They thought I had a lot of courage.”

So did her fellow Cursillistas. One told her, “This has God’s handprints all over it.”

“So many times we don’t understand why things happen, but it’s all part of God’s plan,” Williams said. “When a person stays close to God and their faith he will lead you through any difficulty.”