'My life is now complete': Adopted woman, 75, finally meets biological sister after five decades of searching An adopted woman who started searching for her biological family more than five decades ago, was finally reunited with her sister yesterday. Judy Bottomley, 75, who lives in Mesa, Arizona, told azcentral.com that she was 'trying really hard not to get too hyper' as she sat waiting for her younger sibling Rita Betush to arrive. The two were put in touch last October via the Children's Home Society of Virginia - an adoption agency - and this week they met in person for the first time. Family reunion: Judy Bottomley (right) was finally reunited with her biological sister Rita Betush (left) yesterday after decades of fruitless searching Emotional meeting: The sisters were put in touch last October via the Children's Home Society of Virginia but until this week they had not met in person Explaining how it felt to see her 68-year-old sister Mrs Bottomley said: 'It's almost surreal, like a Monet painting. 'I was telling Jim [her husband] I was so afraid I was going to wake up and find out it wasn't real until I could touch her and put my arms around her and know she's flesh and blood. It was almost too much to hope for. Mrs Betush, who traveled from Pennsylvania for the reunion added: 'It's emotional and wonderful. It just feels like my life has been completed somehow. Long-lost love: Sisters Rita Betush, 68, (left) and Judy Bottomley, 75 (right) were overwhelmed with emotion Mrs Bottomley's mother worked as a housekeeper for a family in Roanoke, Virginia. She fell pregnant after falling in love her employer's son, but because they weren't married the divorcee, who already had three children, decided to put her newborn up for adoption in 1939. Mrs Bottomley, who is married with three children, 15 grandchildren and ten great grandchildren, explained that over the years she had 'cried so many tears of anger and frustration and sadness.' I have a sister... That's something I've wanted my whole life and never had' She spent most of her childhood in the suburbs of Chicago, but also lived in Texas, Arkansas and Indiana. Her parents told her she was adopted and Mrs Bottomley said that she often wondered about her biological family. 'When I was a young girl, I used to dream I was standing on a corner in Roanoke,' she recalled. I was looking at people on the street and wondering if any of these people was my mother. That's how bad I wanted to know.' She said her adoptive mother asked if she was interested in trying to find her birth parents but she said no because 'I could see she was sad because she was afraid.' It wasn't until her adoptive mother's death in 1987 that she really began searching for her relatives. Circumstance: Mrs Bottomley's mother was working as a housekeeper in Virginia when she fell pregnant However Virginia's adoption laws concerning privacy made it difficult for her to make much headway. It wasn't until last year that real progress was made thanks to a young social worker with the Children's Home Society, who saw an obituary for Mrs Bottomley's mother and noticed the name Rita Betush. Mrs Betush, who was ten-years-old when she found out she had an older sister, received a phone call asking if anybody had given up a baby for adoption in the family. 'I said my mother had, and we've been looking for her for years,' she explained. 'I was afraid I was going to wake up and find out it wasn't real until I could touch her and put my arms around her' The agency initially acted as a go-between, forwarding e-mails between the sisters, before allowing them to contact each other directly. The siblings discovered there have been times when their lives have potentially overlapped. When Mrs Betush and her husband, Bob, married in 1964, he was stationed at an Air Force base in California near where the Bottomleys were living at the time. Their paths could have crossed again after the Bottomleys moved to Mesa. Mrs Betush's brother-in-law lives nearby and they have visited the area numerous times over the years. They sisters are now planning a family gathering in Arizona and at the Betushes" home near Pittsburgh. Mrs Bottomley concluded: 'I have a sister. That's something I've wanted my whole life and never had.' 'Me, too,' Mrs Betush added.