After 30 Years Adopted Woman Meets Biological Mom In Colombia

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A woman who was aged 19 when she discovered she had been adopted to the U.S. from Colombia as a baby finally shared her first hug with her biological mom after 30 years. Melissa Guida-Richards, 30, from Pike County, Pennsylvania, was adopted into an immigrant Italian- and Portuguese-American family, who kept her adoption a secret for 19 years because her mom was afraid that she and her brother wouldn’t be accepted properly into the family. Growing up, Melissa said she experienced racism from her family and those in her neighborhood, as though she believed she was Italian, others saw her as Latina. At age 19, Melissa discovered she was adopted, which led her to online groups, where she found support among other transracial adoptees. Melissa said she did not truly come to terms with her adoption until 2016, and after a 2019 article that she wrote about her experience went viral, Melissa decided to turn to writing as a source of therapy. She wrote a book about her experiences, and after receiving support from her adopted parents, she was encouraged to meet her birth mom. After finding her birth mom in January 2020, in-person meetings were delayed due to lockdown travel restrictions. But, over time, Melissa was able to use a translator to slowly build a relationship with her biological mom, Sandra Contreras Nieves, 54, who is based in Zetaquira, a Colombian town of around 5,000 people, around a four-hour drive from Bogota.

VideoID: TT-5944

Rights Cleared & Verified: 11/27/2023

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