She Never Met Her Son Until Fate Brought Them Together 48 Years Later

The Vietnam War was a difficult time for millions of people. In America, the government was obsessed with tackling communism and sent millions of Americans into active duty. For the Vietnamese, their lives were thrown into turmoil. With an illegitimate child, one Vietnamese mother thought she’d never see her son again.

In the peak of the Vietnam War, Thuy-Nga Thi Nibblett met an American serviceman. He was handsome, and they started a relationship much to the chagrin of her father.

With the chaos of the war all around, Thuy-Nga Thi Nibblett continued to see her American military lover. Unfortunately, he was transferred to another base, effectively ending their romance and communication. Thuy-Nga came away with something unexpected from the relationship – a pregnant belly. At 17 years old and unmarried, an unplanned pregnancy with no father in the picture would not go over well with her family or her community. Still a minor, she had few options beyond her father’s wishes.

Unsurprisingly, Thuy Nga’s father did not approve of the pregnancy. He hated everything about the situation: he hated that she would have a child out of wedlock, he hated that she was so young, and he hated that the father was an American. Thuy-Nga was now between a rock and a hard place. She was still living under her father’s roof which meant she had little say in the end. She knew that what she wanted and what he wanted were two separate things.

In the end, Thuy-Nga never had a chance to keep her child. Her father believed that her son would be looked down on by their community and he looked down on the child himself. Immediately after Thuy-Nga gave birth to a beautiful baby boy, her father took the child from her. She thought she would never see her child again. The father was out of the picture, and now Thuy-Nga was also no longer in her son’s life.

At age two, baby Kirk found a lifeline. He was adopted by an American couple from a Vietnamese orphanage. Without a biological mother or father, the Kellerhals swooped in to bring baby Kirk into their family. They gave him the life every child deserves. Kirk grew up in Texas, graduating from Nacogdoches High School. After high school, he attended Stephen F. Austin State University, not far from his hometown in Nacogdoches. He lived a normal life, just one without biological parents.

Kirk thought he would never meet his biological parents. He had accepted the fact that they were dead, perhaps killed during the later years of the Vietnam War, or that they had died from other causes. Now 47 years old, there was no reason to believe that he would ever meet his birth mother. He had moved on with his life. There was no point in praying for a miracle that was all but impossible.

With the thought of his biological parents out of sight and out of mind, Kirk moved on with his life. The first step was getting married. Now he has a beautiful wife and a teenage son named Andrew. Since 2010, Kirk and his family have lived in Virginia Beach. He has a variety of interests which he has turned into work, including photography and video editing. Kirk works a variety of organizations on their multimedia needs.

While Kirk had given up any hope of finding his mother, Thuy-Nga never forgot about her son. As a religious woman, she frequently prayed for the possibility of being reunited with her son. She only had a few split seconds with him and could only hope that she could meet him and see what kind of person he had become. Thuy-Nga could not give up. She had been through too much heartbreak to quit searching for Kirk.

Although her dream of reuniting with her son was strong, Thuy-Nga Thi Nibblett had to carry on with her life. Soon after she gave birth to Kirki, Thuy-Nga packed up her stuff and left for America. She met a man from Florida named William Nibblett, and they wed in 1971. He worked for the United States Air Force for over twenty years. They had two children together, a son CJ and a daughter Tina.

With her mother obsessed over finding her long lost son, Thuy-Nga’s daughter Tina joined her mother’s fight. She made a plea on social media in the hope of finding her brother. Tina posted a photo on Facebook of herself holding a sign with her brother’s birth information. Without knowing his American name, she listed his birth name, Tran Van Hung. The post from 2015 has received 10,633 shares. Some people sent her the names of people that could be her brother, but none were a match.

After Tina’s social media experiment failed, Thuy-Nga had to look for alternative methods to find her son. In 2015, she decided to try her luck with an online genealogy site. She chose Family Tree DNA to help her track her son. The site has a variety of options for finding your ethnic background, and most importantly it helps you find long lost family members. It is one of the most popular sites for DNA matching in the world.

It had been a while since Kirk had thought about really searching for his mother. He was still reluctant to try and be greeted with potential disappointment. Kirk was still interested in knowing about his past, but relied on traditional search methods, limiting the reach of his hunt. However, his wife urged him to try, this time with the help of the internet, a source he had disregarded. Finally, he agreed to join Family Tree DNA.

A few days after he signed up for Family Tree DNA, Kirk received an email. He had a potential match. Kirk said, “It said parent-child match. I just kind of shook my head and said that’s a mistake. That’s impossible.” For over 47 years, Kirk had believed his mother was dead or off the grid. Here he was with not only a credible lead, but a DNA match to a woman he did not know existed.

Thuy-Nga could not believe her luck. After almost half a century, she finally found the answer she had been looking for. A pious woman, Thuy-Nga said, “I knew that God would answer if I just keep faith and keep believing. God sent my son to me. I remember in the Bible it said knock and it shall be opened, ask and you shall receive. I wouldn’t let go.” Through her faith, Thuy-Nga never gave up and always had hope.

Now that they had established contact, Kirk and Thuy-Nga worked out where they would go from here. She was living in San Antonio with her family, while he lived in Virginia Beach with his. The emotions running through their respective bodies could not be contained. They both had been waiting a lifetime for this to happen and now were armed with the knowledge that the other person existed. The only thing they could is meet face to face.

Thuy-Nga was still in shock. She could not believe that she found her long lost son. She did what any mother would do in this situation – Thuy-Nga hopped into the car with her husband William, and they took off for Virginia Beach. It is not exactly an easy trip. According to Google Maps, the trip takes 23 hours and 30 minutes. The trip crosses through eight states, giving Thuy-Nga plenty of time to picture the first encounter in her head.

The whole ordeal was surreal for Kirk as well. Here he was more than 47 years of his life believing that his birth mother was nowhere to be found and all it took was sending a DNA sample to an online genealogy company to find a match. All he could do was wait and wonder how the first encounter would go. What would she look like? Did she have other children/did he have siblings? How would he react?

Finally, the big day had arrived. After almost 48 years, Kirk would meet the mother he never knew, and Thuy-Nga would meet the son that she never forgot. Kirk waited for her to arrive in the driveway. As any Texan would, Thuy-Nga and William pulled up in their big white truck. When the door opened, Thuy-Nga lost control of her emotions. She took one look at Kirk and knew immediately that it was her boy.

Before his mother arrived, Kirk was visibly emotional. He was interviewed by CBN News to capture the beautiful moment that they would meet. He told them, “This is pretty surreal. Less than an hour and it’s been 48 years. This is going to be the longest hour of my life.” Imagine standing in Kirk’s shoes on the driveway that day. Everything that you thought you knew about your life is about to be blown apart by the opportunity to meet his mother.

While she wrapped her arms around her son, Thuy-Nga did what any religious person would do – she thanked God. She said, ” Thank you so much God, thank you, Jesus. I know you knew where my son is.” The tears poured down her face as she refused to her let Kirk go. Fortunately, he had no interest in letting go of her either. He had found his mother and the thought of letting her go was too much.

When they sat down for an interview with CBN News, Kirk said about the moment she arrived, “To see her pulling up, I don’t want to say it was an out of body experience, but it was pretty darn close. It is almost like living a dream.” They both were living a dream, one that they had always imagined but never thought was possible. Now, here they were embracing each other for the first time.

“I just knew that it was my son because I prayed and he answered. Just keep continue on believing and sooner or later god will open that door. (It’s been) 48 years for us, but for God it’s not,” Thuy-Nga said. It’s truly amazing how much she allowed her faith to carry her forward and give her the hope necessary to make this day a reality. As Kirk’s mother, she knew that they could not be separated forever.

Once the initial shock of meeting his mother set in, Kirk had another realization – he was about to meet a brother and sister he never knew existed. His family was about to grow beyond his wildest imagination. He did not even know that Tina had posted the photo with his birth information. Now he would have the chance to introduce his wife and son to his long lost family. Kirk could not wait to expand his family.

Not long after Thuy-Nga and Kirk had their emotional introduction, they prepared for another surprise meeting. Miraculously, Kirk was able to track down his birth father. The previously anonymous United States Serviceman that had left Vietnam all those years ago finally had a name – Skip Soule. Although he was grateful for the love his adopted parents gave him, Kirk was in an unimaginable situation – he was surrounded by the two people that created him.

Once he tracked down Skip for the meeting, Kirk arranged for not only himself to meet his biological father, but for Thuy-Nga to see him again. Along with her husband William, they traveled to his home. When she walked in the door of Skip’s home, Thuy-Nga exclaimed, “Wow, I would never recognize you.” Hilariously, as she walked in the house, she also said hi to Skip’s grandaughter, “Hi sweetie. I don’t know who you are, but I’ll give you a hug.”

The foyer in Skip’s house became the location of their magical family moment. Together, at last, mother, father, and son stood next to one another and joined together for a group hug. As they embraced, Kirk said, “This is awesome,” and Skip responded, “Yeah, it is.” It is crazy to think that this was the first time the entire family was together. They never had a moment in the hospital as Skip did not even know she was pregnant.

As for Thuy-Nga and Skip, this meeting was the first time they had seen each other since before she had come to the United States and her country was war torn. Skip had lived a full life and had multiple grandchildren without knowing he had another son. As the family hugged it out 48 years later, Skip made sure to compliment his former lady (with William right there). He said, “You’re still beautiful. That’s all that counts.”

Not long after he reunited with his mother and father, Kirk met more of his long lost siblings. He traveled to New York to meet Skip’s kids. Family has always been important to Kirk even though the biggest pillars of his biological family had always been missing. He could not miss an opportunity to meet his new brothers and sister. Kirk first met Amy when he met Skip, then had a chance to meet Patrick and Brian.

One thing Kirk noticed when he met his new family is how eerily similar he looks like his half brother Pat. In a Facebook post sharing photos from his visit, Kirk said, “Yes…I know.. the similarities between Pat and I are… INSANE!” He’s not wrong. Pat lives in Syracuse with his wife, Debra. Just like his brother, Pat is obsessed with his family and could not be happier to be connected with Kirk. Kirk had a blast visiting them in New York.

Kirk posted a sentimental Facebook post to commemorate his few weeks reuniting with his family. He wrote, “The amazing story of how God is working to reconnect me with family I didn’t even know existed continues to unfold….the dust is FAR from settling…The conversations I’ve had with them in the past couple of days has again been a living testament to the real living truth of Jeremiah 29:11! We are working on “Family Reunion – Part II”! I love you guys!”