COEUR d’ALENE — Try as she might, Linda Coulter couldn’t hold back the tears.

Outside her Fourth Street apartment on Saturday morning, surrounded by family members young and old, she cried with anxious sobs.

It was all too much — too much emotion, love, relief. Too much hopefulness and happiness. After three decades of worrying and wondering, Coulter was about to greet the daughter she had once lost.

“You can’t explain what it’s like to have a child out of your life for 31 years, and then have them call you out of the blue,” said Coulter, 47. “I would’ve never thought in a million years I would see my daughter again.”

Around 10 a.m., a white van pulled into the lot and parked in a nearby space.

Out stepped Jodee Holeman-Carr, 31, now living in Redmond, Ore., with her husband and their children. She was the 8-month-old girl Coulter had given up for adoption long ago, back when she was a teenage mother in Shelton, Wash., and didn’t have many options.

Her baby’s name was Jessica then, before the adoptive parents changed it.

“To me, she’ll always be Jessie,” Coulter said.

Mother and daughter embraced in a tearful hug. Family members greeted each other for the first time, shaking hands. There was laughter and storytelling.

“It’s just surreal,” Holeman-Carr said. “It’s like something you’d watch on a TV show. I think I’m still in shock of it all.”

She had started searching for Coulter when she was 17, trying to piece together the details of her early childhood. Nothing turned up. At times, she and her mother were living in the same areas, even the same cities, but they never found a way to connect.

As the years went by, both women started families and found homes. Coulter often thought of her baby girl, wondering if she was all right, if she had a good life. A reunion, though, seemed all but impossible.

“She didn’t know she had family (in North Idaho),” Coulter said.

The breakthrough came last Tuesday. Holeman-Carr was celebrating her 31st birthday, and decided to search for her mom on Facebook. The words “Linda Coulter” stirred up 501 results, but Holeman-Carr scoured the names, one by one, until she discovered Coulter’s profile and phone number.

She sent an early-morning text; Coulter responded. They spoke on the phone, confirming what they had hoped was true.

By week’s end, Holeman-Carr was driving to Coeur d’Alene. Her husband, Coy, 7-year-old son, Wyatt, and 4-year-old daughter, Temperance, also came along.

“It’s a good thing. I’m happy for them all, I really am,” said Paul Randleas of Kellogg, Coulter’s brother, as he watched all the hugs and handshakes. “I’m happy to meet my niece.”

The newcomers were welcomed like old friends. Uncles, aunts, cousins, brothers and grandparents — just about everyone joined the celebration. Coulter’s sons, Jonathun Miltenberger and Timothy Singlestar, met their new sister.

Folks who couldn’t make it to Coeur d’Alene were contacted by phone, or visited later.

“For her to find out she has hundreds of family members ... wow, that’s really cool,” Randleas said. “Thirty years ... that’s a lot of catching up to do.”

Holeman-Carr and her family will only stay in Coeur d’Alene until today. Then it’s back to Oregon, back to the everyday.

But it won’t be long until she returns. All those new relatives, and one very happy mother, will be waiting for her.

“We have our whole lives together,” Coulter said.