She Was Abandoned At A Police Station As A Baby, And She Recently Found Her Birth Family
When she was 11 months old, TikToker Amber Nichols (@nicholsamber) was abandoned on the steps of a police station in Seoul, Korea.
The police gave her a name, examined her, gave her a birthday and age, and then handed her off to an orphanage. The orphanage placed her in a foster home until they could find someone to adopt her.
She stayed in the foster home for six months before being put on a plane to California, where she lived with her adoptive family, the Johnsons.
For a long time, that was all she had ever known about her past. Now, at 51 years old, she has recently found her birth family and was able to learn more about her background.
In California, she became part of the Johnson family, and they were very welcoming and loving. She had a healthy and happy childhood and grew up with two siblings.
She was always told that her birth mother loved her but was unable to keep her. She wanted Amber to have a better life, so that’s why she gave her up for adoption.
When Amber was 29 years old, she had her first daughter, Maya. That was when she reached out to the orphanage and asked if anyone had ever come looking for her.
The answer was no, but she put her name on a registry just in case anyone did. Still, this confirmed for her that there was no way to find her birth mother, so she decided to let it go.
Then, when Amber was 45, she decided to do a DNA test and search for her mother. Of course, she didn’t get any results.
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Her friends encouraged her to keep looking, but she already felt a sense of closure and didn’t see the point of continuing.
One morning, she was sipping her coffee and scrolling through the news with her husband when a story about a Korean mother reunited with her daughter popped up.
As she skimmed the story, she saw a link for a DNA website that Koreans could use to find people all around the world.
Amber uploaded her DNA information to the website. Two days later, she received an email with her results. There was a full sibling match.
It took a little while to be able to get in touch with her sibling, as they had submitted their DNA seven years ago.
But eventually, the DNA company sent her a letter that her older sister had written to her. She introduced herself, saying that she was 55 years old, and their older brother was 62.
Their mother passed away when she was three years old. Their father was a police officer and struggled to take care of them on his own after he got sick.
Because of the difficult situation, their father’s two older brothers stepped in to help raise them. Their oldest brother was raised by their eldest uncle, and she was raised by their second uncle.
Amber’s care was supposed to be arranged by their grandmother and aunt. They gave money to a nearby Korean pastor and his wife to care for her.
Sometime later, when Amber’s sister came to visit, their aunt told her that Amber had moved away to an unknown place.
When she was 18, she searched for Amber in newspaper ads, police stations, and government agencies, but couldn’t find her. Later, she registered her DNA at the police station and with this company.
For Amber, it was a huge relief to know that her mother was at peace and had not been carrying the pain of giving her up all these years. She was beyond glad to have finally found her birth family.
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