Belgian Woman Finds Filipina Mother after 38 years

“A Belgian woman has at long last been reunited with her Filipina mother in dramatic fashion on Philippine TV, after searching for her for years, reported Gazet van Antwerpen.

38-year-old Caroline Van Gils, who had been adopted by a Belgian couple as a baby from an orphanage in the Philippines, had been searching for her mother for decades to no avail. She was in a race against time, because the last woman who still remembered processing her adoption papers was an elderly nun who suffered from Alzheimer’s disease.

The Philippine television news magazine Kapuso Mo, Jessica Soho (KMJS) found about her case and decided to help, and in a surprise twist, while visiting an orphanage in the Philippines, the show invited who they believed to be her mother, 65-year-old Lelia Mahayag, to show up that day. Van Gils was shocked and overcome with joy when she realized that the woman they introduced to her was most likely her biological mother, however she wanted to make sure and both agreed to take DNA tests.

After the DNA test had been completed, the results revealed on KMJS showed that the probability of Mahayag being the mother of Van Gils as 99.99 percent. Mother and daughter were overwhelmed with joy and tears. Joining them in the happy news were Van Gils’ daughter and Mahayag’s other daughter, Van Gils’ half sister.

Mahayag apologized for giving her up and Van Gils said that she forgave her and that she had a good life in Belgium.

Earlier in the show, Mahayag explained that she had been separated from her husband and out of desperation, the became involved with another man. She became pregnant with his child, but he was a married man, so she kept their relationship and the baby a secret.

On October 9, 1979, she gave birth to Van Gils, who she named Connie Dechino in Bacolod. She then gave the baby to her cousin Asuncion to care for, however she soon developed diarrhea and the cousin decided leave her at an orphanage. A Belgian couple adopted young Connie and changed her name to Caroline.

Van Gils told KMJS that she was grateful to her adoptive parents for raising her, but always felt something was missing:“My adoptive mother gave me all the tools that I needed to have a good life. But the emotional concept was missing. The warmth of the family bond, I missed it.”

Belgian woman finds her long-lost Filipina mother after 38 years

[Taiwan News 5/8/18 by Keoni Everington]

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