“I love you so much mom!” – Mr. Jimmy Lippert Thiden, 42 years old, American Nationality, tears welled up while talking to his biological mother when they met for the first time recently in his home town of Valdivia – Chile.
María Angelica Gonzalez said to him: “Son, you don’t know how many tears I have cried for you. How many nights I have stayed awake begging God to keep me alive until I know what is happening to me. Is it? Baby?” ,
The tearful story of mother and daughter begins in 1981, when Mr. Thyden was born.
The emotional moment when Mr. Thyden hugged his biological mother for the first time in 42 years. Photo: AP
AP Described 42 years ago, hospital staff in Chile lifted a newborn son from the arms of his mother, Maria Angelica Gonzalez. Then they told him that the boy was dead.
In fact, the boy “just born dead” was Jimmy Lippert Thayden. He was a victim of gangsters who stole Chilean children and sold them to foreigners for adoption.
Thayden is later adopted by an American family and learns that he was born in Chile. He served in the US Marines, now has a wife and two daughters, ages 5 and 8.
With the help of Chile-based non-profit Nos Buscamos, Mr Thyden started looking for the source in April this year and was finally satisfied. On August 25, 2023, he hugged his biological mother in Chile for the first time in 42 years.
“This moment is really indescribable. My heart feels like it’s suffocating” – Mr Thayden told the AP – “how I can express my feelings for the first time after being held in my mother’s arms for 42 years I can do.”
The Nos Buscamos Foundation revealed that Thayden was born prematurely at a hospital in the Chilean capital, Santiago, and was placed in an incubator. The hospital was asked to leave, but when she returned to collect her son, Mrs. Gonzalez received news that the boy had died and would have to be cremated.
Mr. Thyden was emotional as he hugged his loved one in Chile. Photo: ABC
Mr. Thyden continued, “The adoption papers told me that I had no living relatives. Fortunately, I learned that my mother and four other siblings are still in Chile. I am the victim of a fake adoption case. But even the adoptive parents don’t know about it.”
Due to political factors, cases such as Mr. Thayden’s were not uncommon in Chile in the 1970s and 1980s. Many children born in poor families or with ignorant parents were stolen according to the law. In many different ways.
Over the past 9 years, Nos Buscamos has successfully supported 450 reunifications of Chilean families with loved ones living abroad.
“I am trying to make up for the loss of the last 42 years for my mother. 42 years have taken away a lot from us” – said Mr. Thyden, who works as a lawyer in America.
Mr. Thayden, his wife and 2 daughters returned to Chile to visit relatives. Photo: ABC
