The first gift Zhang Xuexia received from her son was a bouquet of carnations, on International Women's Day on March 8, four days after DNA test results confirmed that he was her missing son.
It took almost a quarter of a century for Zhang, from Duyun City in southwest China's Guizhou Province, to find her missing son Song Yanzhi.
"I want to tell those who're still looking for their children that as long as we live, we still have hope," Zhang said, in the cramped, sparsely decorated tearoom she runs.
Her son turned out to be one of her contacts on the instant messaging service QQ. He was living in south China's Guangdong Province when he began to search for his biological parents.
"Mommy, the snow is so beautiful" were the last words her three-year-old son said to her on that fateful day in December 1991. Within hours he had been abducted as he played in the snow.
The trafficker was caught the next year and sentenced to death. Before his execution he told Zhang that her son had been sold to a couple in east China's Fujian Province.
Zhang's husband paid many visits to Fujian between 1993 and 1996 but all his efforts were in vain. The trafficker had made another hideous crime or a terrible mistake before his death. It turned out that Zhang's son was in Guangdong.@ In following years, the couple's search took them to Guangdong, Guangxi, Yunnan and other parts of China. Song's grandfather, who had been looking after his grandson on the day he was snatched, also kept searching for him.
The couple never considered having a second child. "It would have taken time and energy from our mission to track down our son," Zhang said.
Tragedy struck the family again when Zhang's husband committed suicide in 2006. He left a note saying, "I only want my son, Song Yanzhi."
"It was a disaster for me, but it made me more sure I had to find my son. It was my husband's last wish," Zhang said.
In 2009, Zhang's spirits were bolstered by the rise of the Internet. She posted online articles about her son based on memories, as well as sent messages via Twitter-like microblogging site Weibo and instant messaging tool Wechat. Her messages were forwarded by many influential accounts.
Song has always knew that he was "adopted." He made contact with Zhang because her description of her son included a mole on his hand.
However, his mole was on the right hand while Zhang insisted that his son has one on the left hand. "So I thought he wasn't my son," Zhang said.
Despite the disappointment, Song kept a close eye on her progress.
During the Spring Festival this year, Zhang headed to Fujian again and her story drew wide media coverage. Song was moved by her willpower and started to ask himself again, "Maybe Aunty Zhang is my mother?"
This time, he showed the photo of Zhang's son she shared online to his foster parents. "The child on the photo looks exactly the same as you when you were little," they said.
Song was excited by the response, and when his wife said that he had a light brown birthmark on his buttocks, he was even closer to being sure that he was Zhang's son. "It's nearly invisible. So my wife had never noticed it before," he said.
Soon Zhang and Song underwent DNA tests in Guizhou.
When the good news came, the two cried and hugged.
"Mum, don't cry. I'm a man now. You found me," Song said.
