Life
Mom Sees Kidnapped Son's Photo Online After 15 Years
Could you imagine all of the emotions she must have been feeling?!
Kalli Sarkin
07.16.18

Being away from a loved one can be hard. We give away a piece of our heart to each person we love, so when they are gone it feels like a piece of us is missing. Being separated from a friend or family member would be terrible, but losing a child – that would be unthinkable.

Children are an extension of their parents, and they are unimaginably important to them. Many people find new meaning in their lives when they have kids. This bond becomes the most important thing in the world.

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One mother was separated from her child in the most tragic way possible; she then spent years looking for him. Hope Holland was absolutely devastated when her son, Jonathan, was taken away from her.

The man who was Hope’s ex-husband and Jonathan’s father took the boy away in 2000, when he was just a toddler. He disappeared with the child unexpectedly, and Hope didn’t know if she would ever be reunited with her little boy.

She made it her mission to find her lost child. She searched high and low, doing everything she could think of to get her baby back. Years later, Hope still hadn’t been reunited with Jonathan.

“The only focus I had during those first three years was finding my son,” the woman told InspireMore. “How I went about looking for him is a complete blur, but that was the only thing of importance to me.”

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YouTube Screenshot

Hope had tried everything, but the trail was still cold. Her search produced no results until 2006, when a miracle happened. The investigator who was on the case successfully tracked Jonathan’s father to San Diego, California. The distressed mother thought she would finally be reunited with her son; sadly, it wasn’t to be.

The case took a turn for the worse when the initial investigator disappeared without warning. It took months for a replacement to come, and when one finally did it was not the break Hope had been hoping for.

The new investigator decided on a risky tactic to try to get Hope’s son back. He directly notified Jonathan’s father of the investigation and requested that he contact the District Attorney’s Child Abduction Unit.

“I begged him not to do that,” Hope explained. She had been worried that such a notification would motivate the man to flee the country, which is exactly what happened. He crossed the border to Mexico and took Jonathan with him.

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After all these years, Hope was back at the starting point of her investigation. She was in deep despair about the loss of her child, and the sour turn her search had taken only left her heart heavier.

She thought often of little Jonathan, who she hadn’t seen in nearly two decades. “He was only three when I last saw him. I can still see his face and curly head of hair . . . Almost as clear as yesterday,” she shared.

Hope was determined to see her little boy again, but she had no clue how she would do it. As the single mother of her older son, Jacob, she had to work full time AND manage a household. She hardly had any spare time to give to her investigation, but she gave every moment she could.

At last, in 2015, something incredible happened. Hope was signing up for an online video training session when she was prompted to ‘like’ the company’s page. She followed the instructions, then she came across a photo that changed everything.

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One of the photos in the long list that came up stood out to her. It was a picture of Jacob and Jonathan together – and Hope herself had taken it! She was finally on track to finding her child.

“Tears uncontrollably fell down my face,” Hope recalled. “My hands were shaking, my body was shaking.” She wanted to see her son so bad; she just kept her fingers crossed that it would work out this time.

She used social media to find one of Jonathan’s friends, who gave her the boy’s contact information. Jonathan was eager to reconnect with his mom, and the two agreed to meet on July 1, 2015.

YouTube Screenshot
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YouTube Screenshot

It had been 15 years since Hope had seen her baby boy. At long last she was able to hold her child in her arms. “I’m so happy,” the mother told ABC 10. “It’s a miracle. [I] never thought this would ever come.”

Jonathan was in his final year of high school in Mexico, so he promised that after he finished his classes he would move in with Hope in California. The next fall, the boy was back home where he belonged.

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Hope had to wait over a decade to see her long lost son, but when she was finally reunited with him the only thing she could be was grateful for the time they had left together.

No loving mother should have to be separated from her child. To learn more about this heart-wrenching story, watch the video below.

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