A Texas firefighter was adopted by a “very loving, caring, family,” but after becoming a father himself he wanted to learn more about his birth story.
What Tyler Graf discovered was not what he could have ever expected.
“I think it was just knowing that my story did start before I was adopted. So, it’s kind of like missing the first five minutes of the movie,” he told ABC13Houston.
Graf explained in his GoFundMe, that he was contacted by Hijos y Madres del Silencio, a non-governmental organization that supports victims of illegal adoptions and child trafficking in Chile.
“That’s when they sat me down and told me who I was, how they know who I am, and what the true backstory really is,” Graf said about the surreal encounter.
Graf was stolen from his birth mother and she was told that he had died not too long after his birth.
This was a result of a coercive adoption, which ultimately takes away a mother’s right or ability to make a decision due to pressure, withholding information, or manipulation, according to Adoption Choices of Kansas.
Coercive adoptions took over in Chile under Dictator Augusto Pinochet’s reign during the ’70s and ’80s.
Due to this, many babies were taken from their birth mothers and trafficked all over the world.
The American families that received these babies, just like Graf’s family, said that they were not aware that the babies they adopted were actually stolen.
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When Graf’s birth mother, Hilda Quezada Godoy, realized that her son was actually alive, she was in shock as she spent her life concerned about her son’s well-being.
“I wanted to scream. I questioned a lot of things. The thought of if he was loved, if he ate well, if he spent time cold,” she told ABC13Houston.
After finding out the truth about his birth, Graf decided to go to Chile for the first time, where he got to reunite with his birth mother and share a warm embrace. He also got to meet his biological sisters as well.
Graf is now the founder of “Connecting Roots.” A mission statement on their website reads, “Connecting Roots is a U.S. non-profit organization whose goal is to reunite adoptees with their biological Chilean families. We donate MyHeritage DNA testing kits at no cost to confirm genetic matches between Chile-born adoptees and their families.”
“To be a good mother it doesn’t take a fancy house, it doesn’t take money, it’s pretty simple. It’s open arms and a huge heart filled with nothing but support and love,” he said.