After a 12-year search, PhD graduate Gouming Martens has finally found his birth parents. Adopted from a orphanage of China at age four by a Dutch couple, his journey to uncover his origins has touched many online.

According to the South China Morning Post (SCMP), Gouming Martens became lost in 1994 while traveling with his parents from their home in Jiangsu province, eastern China, to his mother’s hometown in Sichuan province, southwestern China. At just three years old, he was sent to an orphanage by some kind-hearted individuals and was later adopted by a Dutch couple, Jozef and Maria Martens, in 1996.

The orphanage named him Gouming, and his Dutch adoptive parents chose to retain the name. They encouraged him to search for his biological parents, and in 2007, the family returned to China to look for clues, only to find the orphanage had disappeared. Undeterred, Gouming Martens continued his search, spending five years relearning Mandarin and working part-time to fund three trips to China during his university years.

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Gouming Martens joined the volunteer organization Baobeihuijia (Baby Come Home) in 2012, which aids in locating missing families. With volunteers’ help, he found his biological parents.

Last year, Martens received good news: his DNA matched his birth mother, Wen Xurong. SCMP reported that his birth parents, who called him Gao Yang, never stopped searching for him. Their story, however, was heartbreaking.

According to the South China Morning Post, Martens’ birth father lost sight of his wife, Wen Xurong, at a railway station. While searching for her, he got into a fight with hooligans and lost Gao Yang.

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Wen was deceived into going home with a vagabond, who forced her to have a son. After she gave birth, the vagabond abandoned her. Wen returned to her hometown, struggling with mental health issues, remarried, and had a daughter.