Home Again After Five Years Missing.

Carlos grew up with his grandma and grandpa in their small mountain town, surrounded by a close-knit family of loving aunts, uncles, and cousins. He went to school, played with his cousins and neighbors, and helped his family with their harvest of cardamom and other agricultural products. 

Five years ago, Carlos was eleven years old when he went with his grandma to temporarily move to the city, four and half hours away from their town, so that she could receive medical treatment. But one day, Carlos was out playing with his new neighbors and got lost on his way home to his grandma. The local police quickly picked him up, and they took him to the child protection office. Because he couldn't give them directions to get back to where he lived with his grandma, he was placed in an orphanage hours later. 

Carlos' grandma was terrified when he didn't come home. She began asking strangers for information about where her grandson was. She navigated her way through the city to find her way to the child protection office, but when she got there, Carlos' caseworker wasn't in the office, and they didn't give her any information on where Carlos was or how she could get him back. 

His grandma passed away shortly after. She had told her family in the mountains that Carlos was lost, but they didn't know where to look for him because she didn't have more information. 

Until his case file came across our team's desk.

According to the orphanage, he had been brought to the city to be abandoned and had no family that wanted him. 

But the social worker on our team knew that there had to be more to Carlos' story. She worked to trace information about of his extended relatives and learned where the town that they lived in was. Still, there was no contact information for anyone in his family, but our team decided to go looking for Carlos' family. 

When our team got to their town, they began asking for the family member's names that they had; it was a matter of minutes before they were led directly to Carlos' grandpa's house. 

When he heard that Carlos had been found, he was so happy and could not hold back his tears. Through his tears, he told the social worker how Carlos was a son to him, and he believed that he had been lost, and after the loss of his wife, he didn't think it would be possible to ever find him. He immediately asked how and when he could get him back home. 

Carlos was so excited when he discovered he could go and live with his family. For so long, he believed that he didn't have a family anymore, and he was thrilled to leave the orphanage and be with them again. 

As our team arrived with Carlos to meet his family, he spotted his grandpa from inside the car and immediately shouted out to him; as soon as we parked, he jumped out of the car and ran and hugged his grandpa! It was a tear-filled reunion, and they were so happy to be together again. 

Thanks to your support, families are becoming whole again.