Desperate to save her children from starvation and have enough food to eat, Lien decided to give her twin sons Thanh and Canh to two families. Moved by the family’s plight, many people advised Lien to give up some of her children for adoption. As they passed Bac Ninh Province, Trang suffered another attack of acute pain. The seven-member family begged for food on the way to the promised land. Trang and Lien (front) and their sons behind, from left to right: Truong, Thanh, Canh, Ty. He had been suffering from a stomach ailment for years, needing frequent treatment.Īfter they sold the house, the poor family left their hometown and moved to northern Lang Son Province, where they were told they could find a stable livelihood. It had to be sold to meet her husband Tran Van Trang’s medical expenses. Not long after, the mother, Pham Thi Lien, lost the house in Hai Duong Province’s Kim Thanh District. All they had for company was a grapefruit given by a neighbour. Mother was off taking their sick father to the local clinic. Five children cowered underneath a bed in fear. However, with the help of "20/20," Thomas was recently reunited with his twins for the first time over than 40 years.One night in 1977, strong winds blew the roof off a house during a thunderstorm.
Well okay, where are my rights? I was told I had no rights," Thomas said.
Now all of a sudden they got the American law.
The foundation, which helped support Asian-American children, confirmed that Thomas' twins were adopted into the United States in 1976 and that it was "impossible to reverse this set of circumstances." Because of privacy laws, Thomas was unable to have any further information. Buck Foundation to obtain additional information. The State Department informed Thomas that the kids had been adopted to the U.S. In the 1980's, Thomas found out that Connie put the twins up for adoption in 1976. State Department to try to find out what happened to them. After months on the case, with the help of "20/20" and Slaton, Thomas was recently reunited with his son and daughter for the first time.įor years, Thomas wrote to Connie to ask about the twins but when the letters started to be returned without a forwarding address, Thomas said he, with Polly's help, contacted his congressman and the U.S. "20/20" offered to help Thomas find his twins and enlisted the help of investigative genealogist Pamela Slaton and ABC News' South Korea News Bureau. The post was shared more than 1 million times, with prayers, encouragement and leads pouring in from around the world. Unsuccessful in his search for years, Thomas turned to Facebook this April, posting photos and documents and asking for help. "It's all I had all these years, so I just, wherever I went went," Thomas, 68, told ABC News' "20/20." One of the few things he had left were just a handful of photos. Thomas said their birth mother later put them up for adoption without his knowledge, and they were lost to him. Thomas had been looking for his twins, a son and a daughter, ever since he had to leave them behind with their birth mother in South Korea more than 40 years ago. Army veteran Allen Thomas has been searching for his twin children for nearly half a century, and finally, his search is over.
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