A woman abandoned as a baby had all but given up hope of ever finding her birth family, until she got a text message that changed everything.

Amber Nichols from Seattle, Washington, always knew the story behind her adoption. At 10 months old, she was abandoned at a police station in South Korea.

“My adoption and being abandoned at a police station was always talked about openly,” Nichols told Newsweek. “I remember hearing the story told over and over as long as I can remember. I didn’t look like any of my family, so it was an obvious question that would be addressed as soon as we met anyone new.”

Nichols was adopted by a couple who already had 2 biological children but wanted a bigger family. After a heartbreaking series of miscarriages and stillbirths, they decided to adopt.

“A friend told my mom that babies from Korea were easier to adopt,” Nichols said. ” At first, their extended family had a tough time understanding why they would want to adopt a foreign baby. But my mom really wanted another child.”

Nichols grew up in a very religious household. Whenever she asked about her birth mother, she was told her adoption was part of “God’s divine plan.”

“The story they told me was that my birth mother was probably in a really tough situation and loved me so much that she was willing to give me up so that I could have a better life,” Nichols said.

Growing up, Nichols admits that the story was “useful” in allowing her to frame what happened as a “loving sacrifice.” But as she entered her late teens, she began to see it differently.

“The pain of feeling abandoned and rejected by my mother began to creep in,” she said.

Being adopted can have a significant emotional impact. A 2021 study published in the journal Developmental Psychopathology found that children adopted from foster care are more likely to experience enduring emotional and behavioral problems during their formative years.

While a happy home life in the new adoption setting can temper this, an experience of this kind sometimes has a psychological impact.

Nichols grew up in a happy home, but still felt out of place. “I was raised in a very white community. White church, white school, white neighborhood. I always felt different, knew I stuck out and people didn’t understand that part of me,” she said.

Life growing up was good, but as she got older and headed out into the world, something changed. “I really started to ache for my birth mother, and think about the complexities of being adopted in a new and sometimes painful way,” Nichols said.

Having her own children only deepened the pain she felt about her past. She recalls asking herself, “How could my birth mother hold me, like I’m holding my daughter, and choose to give me up?”

Yet rather than feel rejected, she began to think differently, that maybe her mom had “no choice” but to give her up.

“I had a new pain in my heart, thinking about the deep pain my birth mother must be in, for having to give me up under whatever circumstances caused it,” Nichols said.

It was around this time that she decided to begin searching for her mother. She contacted the adoption agency her parents used and tried a couple of DNA tests, but got nothing back.

Then, in May 2025, Nichols came across a news article about South Korea’s history of overseas adoptions. In doing so, she learned about a company that was linking Korean adoptees with their birth parents. She got in touch, determined to give DNA testing one last try.

Within two days, a message popped up on her phone confirming something unexpected: a full sibling match.

“I literally went numb,” she said. ” I don’t know why, but it had never occurred to me that I had a sibling. I had always thought only of my mother, because she was the only thing that I knew had to exist.”

She contacted the company behind the DNA test. A few more days passed before she received another text. It contained a letter from her sister that included pictures of her, her brother and her birth parents.

Nichols discovered her birth mother had passed away when she was just three months old, and her father, who was a police officer, became sick. Her father’s older siblings stepped in to take care of Nichols’ birth siblings, while her grandmother and another aunt were entrusted with her care.

When Nichols’ sister went to visit a little while later, she was told her younger sibling had “moved away.” When she grew up, she too continued to search for some trace of Nichols but found nothing. She, too, turned to DNA testing as a last hope.

“It’s been such a long time but I truly hoped I would see you again someday,” the letter said. “I’m truly sorry it took me so long to find you. I love you dearly little sister. I hope we can meet again soon.”

That meeting took place in August of this year, with Nichols and her family traveling to Seoul to meet the family she lost 50 years earlier. It was an emotional reunion and one that Nichols captured on camera in a video posted to her TikTok account, @nicholsamber.

Nichols originally began creating videos for TikTok, documenting her journey in the hope that friends and family would tune in. The clips have garnered millions of views.

“I thought this story would help adoptees feel less alone, but what I’ve realized from all of the messages I’ve gotten is that it touches everyone,” Nichols said. “We all have family wounds.”

Nichols acknowledges that meeting her sister after so long and working through their family’s story together was not always easy. There were “hard moments” during the trip, and the long-lost sisters had to work through tough conversations. But there were moments of peace, too.

When Nichols’ mother passed, her ashes were spread in the Hahn River. Together, the sisters visited that special place to tell their mom they had found each other.

Nichols took so much away from that trip. “The biggest surprise was how at home I felt in Korea and with my family,” she said. “It unlocked a deep longing inside me for my culture, that I didn’t know existed.”

Nichols and her sister regularly text and video call, and they plan to see each other again in the future.

“It’s all still very recent and raw. still processing,” Nichols said. “We are still figuring out how to have a relationship with someone who you feel you know, and yet don’t.”