And the images of his oldest daughter, so far away, haunted his days and nights.

"I knew when Steven and I got married that he had another daughter," Maylene said. "He talked about her all the time. But we didn't know where she was."

Steve continued searching.

"We looked and looked," Maylene said. "Then we got on the Web and finally tracked down Lacey's mother and Steve talked to her.

That conversation was rough.

"She was pretty tough on Steve," Maylene said. "But he understood."

True, Steve had left. He'd made his mistakes. He was young when he and Lacey's mother were dating, and then she got pregnant.

"He was young, dumb and stupid," his wife said.

After that, things hit a brick wall.

And time and distance had not made things any easier. The anger, frustration and tension remained. Steve was told he couldn't contact his daughter.

But he refused to give up.

Through 2007 he stayed in touch. Then, in March 2008, Lacey's mother told Steve she had permission to tell him the address where Lacey lived.

His first letter went out a short time later.

"He wrote his daughter for the first time in May," Maylene said. "And he got a letter back from her."

That first contact was bittersweet.