In 1988, Li Jingzhi lost her son, Mao Yin, when he was kidnapped and sold. In May, after 32 years, the mom and son finally got reunited.
Emergency at home, return right away
Li and her husband would drop their two-year-old son at a kindergarten in the morning, then pick him up after work. The mom-of-one worked for a grain exporting company, and she had to leave town for many days during harvest time.
On one of her trips in October 1988, she received a telegram, which wrote six words: "Emergency at home; return right away." She hurried home only to find that her son, whom she nicknamed Jia Jia, was missing.
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Her husband explained that he had stopped by a small hotel owned by the family to drink water on their way home after picking up their son. He left Jia Jia for one to two minutes to cool the water. When he turned around, their son was gone.
A week had passed but still no signs of her son
Li thought that someone would bring her son back to her. After a week had passed and still no signs of Jia Jia, she knew the situation was severe. She printed 100,000 flyers with her son's picture and handed them everywhere but to no avail.
During that time, she was not aware of child-trafficking. People believed that the one-child policy introduced in 1979 caused people to abduct children, especially boys.
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She thought of blaming her husband for her missing son at first, but she realized that they had to work together to find Jia Jia. After four years of not talking about anything else besides their son, the couple got divorced.
Did not give up
Li did not stop searching. She would go to the provinces every Friday after work and then come home on Sunday to work on Monday. She would investigate whenever she would hear news about a boy who looked like her son.
There was one time she followed the parents of whom she thought has Jia Jia everywhere. She even had gone more than two days of no sleep, only to find out that the boy the couple had was not her son.
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A former classmate who was a doctor told her that made a big impact on Li. He said that he could heal her physical illness but not her heart. It woke her up and helped her to avoid getting upset from not finding her son.
Around that time, many children had gone missing already. Li started volunteer work with the website, "Baby Come Home." The site helps families reunite with their missing children. It gave her hope.
In 2009, the Chinese government let parents, who lost children and suspect they may have been abducted, register their DNA. It has helped find thousands of children.
On May 10 this year, Li got a call saying that Mao Yin has been found. The police convinced the man they found to take a DNA test. The mom and son got matching results. On May 18, the son called out "Mother!" as he ran towards his long lost mom.
