"I love you so much, Mom!" - Mr. Jimmy Lippert Thyden, 42 years old, American nationality, emotionally cried and told his biological mother when they first met in his hometown of Valdivia - Chile recently.
Maria Angelica Gonzalez told him: "Son, you don't know how many tears I've cried for you. I've spent many sleepless nights praying to God to let me live until the day I can find out what's happening to you."
The tearful story of mother and son began in 1981, the year Mr. Thyden was born.
The emotional moment when Mr. Thyden hugged his biological mother for the first time after 42 years of wandering. Photo: AP
AP describes how 42 years ago, hospital staff in Chile took her newborn son from the arms of his mother Maria Angelica Gonzalez. They later told her that the boy had died.
In fact, the "born dead" boy was Jimmy Lippert Thyden. He was the victim of crooks who stole Chilean children and sold them to foreigners for adoption.
Thyden was later adopted by an American family and learned he was born in Chile. He served in the US Marine Corps and is married with two daughters, ages 5 and 8.
With the help of the Chilean non-profit organization Nos Buscamos, Mr. Thyden began his search for his roots in April of this year and finally got his wish. On August 25, 2023, for the first time in 42 years, he hugged his biological mother in Chile.
"This moment is really hard to describe. My heart was in my throat," Mr. Thyden told AP. "How can I describe the feeling of being in my mother's arms for the first time in 42 years?"
Thyden was born prematurely in a hospital in Santiago, Chile, and placed in an incubator, the Nos Buscamos organization revealed. She was asked to leave the hospital but when she returned to pick up her son, Ms Gonzalez was told he had died and had been cremated.
Mr. Thyden was emotional when hugging his relatives in Chile. Photo: ABC
"The adoption papers told me I had no living relatives," Thyden continued. "Luckily, I found out that I had a mother and four siblings in Chile. I was a victim of a fake adoption, but my adoptive parents didn't know about it."
Due to political factors, cases like Mr. Thyden's were not uncommon in Chile in the 1970s and 1980s. Many children born into poor families, or to ignorant parents, were stolen in many different ways.
Over the past nine years, the Nos Buscamos organization has successfully supported 450 reunions of Chilean families with relatives abroad.
"I'm trying to make up for the losses of the past 42 years for my mother. The past 42 years have taken a lot from us," added Mr. Thyden, who is working as a lawyer in the US.
Mr. Thyden, his wife and two daughters returned to Chile to reunite with their relatives. Photo: ABC
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