Father and daughter reunite for the first time in 46 years

DECATUR, Ala. ( WHNT ) — A father and daughter have reunited after nearly five decades of searching.

“It’s like a dream come true… what little girl doesn’t want her daddy?” said Lavania LakitaLynn Lumpkins.

It’s been 46 years since the pair have been together. Lavania said there were plenty of discouraging moments and many unanswered phone numbers and addresses.

But now, however, they’re finally in each other’s arms again.

Their story starts in Cleveland, Ohio, where Lavania was born. At the age of two, her mother moved south, taking Lavania with her.

“My grandmother ended up in Tuskegee, and we as well, along with the majority of my aunts and uncles that were in Cleveland, they came too,” said Lavania.

Her father, Marvin Lumpkins, only had a phone book and word of mouth to find his daughter.

“So, I never did find it, and I didn’t even notice she had been looking for me,” said Marvin.

Wanting to find her father, Lavania took matters into her own hands when she grew up.

“I’m a grown-up,” said Lavania. “I can do this. I ain’t got to ask no questions. I can do it myself, and that’s what I did. I started on the hunt.”

After years of coming up short, she tried looking for her father on social media.

“Then I was like, well, maybe he’s on Facebook,” Lavania said. “You don’t know how many Marvin Lumpkins there are until you try to find one. It’s like ‘Your result is 1000… I’m like, oh my god, what?'”

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Lavania shared that she wrote almost every one of them, hoping for a response. She looked at many pictures, thinking she had to share a resemblance to her father.

Finally, she landed on a profile that felt like the one. She anxiously waited for a response after sending a message.

“I was like, ‘Oh my god, he wrote back, he wrote back,’ and that was it… I found him,” Lavania said.

Marvin said he was glad he answered, though he was skeptical at first, after all these years, if it could really be true. So, he asked her one question.

“When she told me what her middle name was, that told me everything because you will never find in name anywhere else,” Marvin said.

LakitaLynn: the family name that sealed the deal.

Marvin drove from his new home in West Virginia to Decatur, where Lavania lives now, to lay eyes on his daughter.

“It was not even a question,” he said. “It was just hurry up and get there.”

There was a lot to catch up on during the family reunion, including introducing him to his grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

During the time News 19 spent with them, the two couldn’t let go of each other.

“She’ll never disappear on me again, you can bet on that,” Marvin said. “That’s not going to happen.”

The two said regular visits are in the future, and today’s visit is only the beginning.

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