"Hola, Mama.” What seems like an unremarkable greeting between mother and son was in this case anything but. Forty-two years ago, hospital workers took Maria Angelica Gonzalez’ son from her arms right after birth and later told her he had died. Now, she was meeting him face-to-face at her home Valdivia, Chile.“I love you very much,” Jimmy Lippert Thyden told his mother in Spanish as they embraced amid tears. “How do you hug someone in a way that makes up for 42 years of hugs?” Thyden told the AP in a video call after the reunion, where he also met his biological brothers and sister. His journey to find the birth family he never knew began in April after he read news stories about Chilean-born adoptees who had been reunited with their birth relatives with the help of a Chilean non-profit Nos Buscamos. The organization found that Thyden had been born prematurely at a hospital in Santiago and placed in an incubator. Gonzalez was told to leave the hospital, but when she returned to get her baby, she was told he had died and his body had been disposed of, according to the case file. Thyden says his was a case of “counterfeit adoption.” The child-trafficking coincided with many other human rights violations that took place during the 17-year reign of Gen. Augusto Pinochet, who on Sept. 11, 1973 led a Chilean coup to overthrow Marxist President Salvador Allende. During the dictatorship, at least 3,095 people were killed, according to government figures, and tens of thousands more were tortured or jailed for political reasons. Over the past nine years, Nos Buscamos has orchestrated more than 450 reunions between adoptees and their birth families, Del Rio said. Other non-profit organizations are doing similar work including Hijos y Madres del Silencio in Chile, and Connecting Roots in the United States. The group has been partnering for two years with genealogy platform MyHeritage, which provides free at-home DNA testing kits for distribution to Chilean adoptees and suspected victims of child trafficking in Chile. Thyden’s DNA test confirmed that he was 100% Chilean and matched him to a first cousin who also uses the MyHeritage platform. Thyden sent the cousin his adoption papers, which included an address for his birth mother and a very common name in Chile: Maria Angelica Gonzalez. It turns out his cousin had a Maria Angelica Gonzalez on their mother’s side and helped him make the connection. But Gonzalez wouldn’t take his phone calls until he texted her a photo of his wife and daughters. Then Thyden sent her more photos of the American family who adopted him, his time in the U.S. Marines, his wedding, and many other memorable life moments. He traveled to Chile with his wife, Johannah, and their two daughters, Ebba Joy, 8, and Betty Grace, 5, to meet his newly discovered family. Stepping into his mother’s home, Thyden was greeted with 42 colorful balloons, each one signifying a year of lost time with his Chilean family. Thyden recalls his birth mother’s response to hearing from him: “Mijo (son) you have no idea the oceans I’ve cried for you. How many nights I’ve laid awake praying that God let me live long enough to learn what happened to you.” Gonzalez declined to be interviewed. Thyden and his family visited the Santiago zoo where his American parents first took him after the adoption. This time their tour guide was his biological sister. Back at Gonzalez' home, Thyden realized that he and his mother share a loved of cooking, so they made fried empanadas together. He pledged to keep using the family recipe to stay connected with his family and his culture. Thyden says his American parents are supportive of his of his journey to reunite with his lost relatives, but were “unwitting victims” of a far-reaching illegal adoption network and are wrestling with the realities of the situation. Through a spokesperson, Thyden’s adoptive parents declined comment. “My parents wanted a family but they never wanted it like this,” he said. While Thyden was successfully reunited with his birth family, he recognizes that reunification might not go as well for other adoptees. He said there was no mechanism, financial or otherwise, to assist Chilean adoptees in their efforts to visit their home country. He said he sold a truck to pay for his family’s plane tickets and other expenses.