A new state law making it easier for adopted people to find their birth parents and expanding access to original birth certificates has very special meaning for four siblings who were born and raised in Bridgeport.

The siblings, who now live in Newtown, say their birth mother, Betty Tierney, died in 1959, when they were children.

When the siblings look back on their childhood one thing, they all agree upon without exception is that Tierney was the best mother anyone could possibly have.

"I remember the love, I can still feel the love, and I'll always have that in my heart," said Martha Corbett.

But when she died of cancer at the young age of 35, their world was forever altered. Their father remarried, and when his new wife adopted the siblings, they each got updated birth certificates bearing the name of their new mother.

By law, their old birth certificates were locked away in closed files, seemingly gone forever, until the new state law recently went into effect that allows adopted children to access their original birth certificates that bears their birth parents' name.

That's what the siblings came to the city's clerk's office on Friday to get. They emerged a short time later with documents they had waited a lifetime to get their hands on.

"It's just bringing a piece of her home that we've all been missing," said Mary Ellen Treffs.

"It just means the world to me. I feel as though we're bringing Betty back home," said Monica Duhancik.

That same day, they took a trip to the cemetery where their birth mother is buried to celebrate the milestone on their sentimental journey.

Although it was an emotional experience, all of them were joyful to be reunited -- in a very real sense -- with the mother they adore. Thanks to the new law, they said they'll never be separated again from their beloved mother.

"I feel that we have done her proud," Corbett said.

The new law also making it easier for adopted children to find their living birth parents.