As a baby in Chile, Kaitlin Saar was stolen from her birth mother, Maria Paulina Gonzalez. Saar, now 41, was taken through a government program under dictator Augusto Pinochet that falsely told mothers their babies had died. She was later adopted by an American family who believed the adoption was legitimate and was raised in New York.
Gonzalez never gave up hope that she would find her daughter. She worked with a human rights lawyer and Connecting Roots, a nonprofit that reunites Chilean children taken during the Pinochet era with their families. DNA test results confirmed Gonzalez and Saar were mother and daughter and earlier this month, they met in Smithtown, New York, where Saar lives, for the first time since her birth.
Saar describes the reunion as emotional and says she’s overjoyed to connect with her mother after decades apart. She’d been afraid to search for the truth but was grateful for the chance to meet her biological family. Saar doesn’t hold any resentment toward her adoptive parents, saying they were also victims and gave her a loving home and opportunities they believed her birth mother wanted for her.
Source: PEOPLE
Photo: Torsten Asmus / iStock / Getty Images