Since a fire destroyed her Bismarck mobile home in October, Candace Peterson has reflected on the importance of family.

"I lost a lot of stuff (in the fire), but the best part of it was that I didn't lose any family members," she said. "Everything else in this world is replaceable."

Just in time for the holidays, Peterson has regained a family member she thought was lost forever.

After a 12-year search, Peterson, 46, has located the infant son she gave up for adoption more than 30 years ago.

Peterson cried tears of joy last week when she and her son, Slade Chase, were reunited in Bismarck for the first time since she gave him up for adoption in Arizona in 1976, she said.

"He was born and I got to watch him for three days before the adoptive parents came down," she said. "That was quite hard, but I knew it was for the best. It was hard watching him cry and it was hard holding his fingers and then having to let go of them."

Peterson, who was 15 years old at the time, said she gave up her son because she was too young to care for him.

"It wasn't that I didn't love him, because, believe me, that wasn't true, not at all," she said.

As soon as Chase reached adulthood, she began searching for him.

"I didn't want to interrupt his life when he was growing up," Peterson said. "Once he reached the age of 18, I was really serious about finding him and just letting him know what happened and why."

In August of 2006, she began working with an Arizona state adoption advocate who located Chase last spring.

"It actually didn't cost that much. I was really shocked," she said. "The total amount of what it cost to find him was only $300."

After the adoption advocate located Chase, he and Peterson exchanged e-mail messages and photos and spoke on the phone. On Dec. 18, they met in person for the first time.

"There were a lot of tears and the biggest bear hug I think I've ever had in my life," she said.

Peterson said she recognizes physical symilarities between Chase and herself.

"He's got the same eyes as me, just a different color," she said. "In fact, his brother and him look almost like twins."

Chase said he was always curious about his heritage and had attempted to search for his birth mother several times.

The 31-year-old from Elfrida, Ariz., is broad-shouldered and tall, with a Southern accent, but little did he know, he's of Norwegian descent.

"I think he has a right to know his family background," Peterson said. "He's a Scandahoovian."

For Chase, this holiday visit will be the first of many trips to North Dakota.

"I'm actually thinking about moving up here," he said.

Peterson said, "We talked about flying back and forth for a while, but if the jobs are good up here, then he'll move up this direction, which would be nice. He loves the snow."

On Dec. 26, they will celebrate Christmas with Peterson's daughter and son-in-law in Bismarck. Then, they will spend a few days with Peterson's other son and daughter-in-law in Fargo.

"I'm going to take him all over," Peterson said.

If they have time, Peterson said she and Chase will visit her sisters in western North Dakota and Montana before Chase returns to Arizona on Jan. 5.

"This is the best Christmas present I ever could get was him coming home," she said.

Peterson now lives in a friend's home just south of Bismarck.