A missing child was
finally reunited with his mom in Northen California this month after she spotted a
picture of him on Facebook.
Fifteen years ago, Hope
Holland watched her 3-year-old son Jonathan leave with his father for a
vacation; a trip from which he would, it seemed, never return. Jonathan was abducted by his
father and taken to Mexico where he grew up without any contact with his mom
for more than a decade.
"I didn't think he
was not coming back," Holland told ABC 7.
She said she searched for him for years,
even hiring a private investigator. Her efforts seemed futile and she
considered giving up.
She wasn't the only one wondering what
happened. Although he did not remember his time with his mother, Jonathan now
18, wondered if she was thinking of him too. While thinking of his mom, Jonathan
posted an old photo on Facebook. In the photo he posed with his older brother
Jacob in a bathtub, one of the few memories left from a time he can not recall
and people he had no real memory of.
During her search for her son, Holland
had encountered many young men with her son's name through the years but when she
saw the photo of her two sons, her heart skipped a beat.
"I scrolled through picture after picture, crying. It
was like flashes of little movie trailers, giving me insight to pieces of his
life," she shared.
She recounted the story on her GofundMe
Page where she raised funds to have a reunion with her son. The fundraising
helped Holland fly Jonathan out to see her for a reunion.
According to NBC, Jonathan plans to
return to Mexico to finish high school and then move back to the United States to
be with his mom.
Photo via youtube