US-based Pinoy overcomes drugs, seeks parents in PHL after 30-year separation
Drugs, anger, and loneliness fueled US-based Filipino Noel Amodia for most of his adult life. Now that he has sobered up, he wants to find the parents he never knew.
“Finding my biological mother is gonna be life-changing,” Noel confided to GMA News Online in an email interview. “I would love to talk to her and just tell her I love her.”
Born December 11, 1982, Noel was left at an orphanage in Legazpi City, Albay, as an infant. When he reached the age of two, he got a new lease on life when he was adopted by Bob and Linda Hudson, a college professor and first grade teacher, respectively, through Hand-In-Hand, a Christian-based, non-denominational adoption agency active for the last 39 years.
Noel said that a volunteer from Hand-In-Hand helped him fly to Charlotte, North Carolina, on January 24, 1985. He was then brought to his new home at Chilton, where the Hudsons and their daughters, then 11-year-old Tami and five-year-old Mandi, waited.
Spoiled child
“My childhood was great. To be honest I couldn't have ask for a better childhood or better family than the Hudsons. I was definitely a spoiled child growing up," he said.
He barely has memories of Tami, who was already in college by the time he was in middle school, but he remembers that tensions between him and Mandi grew strongest during their adolescence.
Despite this and his strict adoptive parents, Noel said he had fun at school and at the First Baptist Church.
True heritage
He also said he always knew that he was adopted “because of skin color was different from the Hudsons.”
However, it wasn't until he was in the fourth or fifth grade that he and his adoptive parents talked about his heritage. Since then, the thought of having parents and siblings in the Philippines never left his mind.
“All they (Hudsons) would tell me [is] that my mother was probably too poor to keep me so she gave me up for adoption. That was basically all I knew back then,” said Noel.
This didn't bother him at the time. He also said he never felt close association with the four other Asian children who went to his school.
“I basically felt I was a white kid, not a Filipino. [In] the church I went to, they were all white people going there. Over time skin tone didn't matter to me because I consider myself white,” he said.
Rebel years
And then adolescence came. Noel's resentment against the Hudsons' strict parenting — not to mention the knowledge that he was adopted — led him to rebel against his adoptive parents' and church's teachings.
Noel said he entered North Greenville University in Tigerville “for the partying.”
“All my life I had to listen to my parents but when I left for school I did what I wanted. I started to hang out with the wrong crowd and ended up dropping out of college," he said.
Night clubs, alcohol, and drugs sustained the young man throughout his twenties, leading him to sever ties with his adoptive family and faith.
He confessed, “I was running because I didn't want to feel the pain and hurt. I have also felt kinda mad at my parents for adopting me.”
Drugs
It was during this period that drugs became his solace because “that is the only thing I thought would make me happy.”
Soon, even a budding relationship with a girl was affected.
“I was dating a Vietnamese girl during that time. We dated all through her time at college, but the partying lifestyle I had messed our relationship up. I remember meeting her family and wishing that I grew up in an Asian household.
This longing, coupled with a stint in jail in 2007, eventually pushed him to sign up for rehabilitation at Freedom Farm Ministries, a Christian drug and alcohol rehabilitation center.
Rehab
Noel is currently in the last few stages of his treatment, and has enjoyed five months of sobriety. During his sessions at the rehab center, he confided his plans to find his parents to counselors and the Hudsons, with whom he has regained contact after many years.
“They are so supportive and happy that I am writing this email to you," he told GMA News Online. “The Hudsons are excited from what may happen from here. They still have everything I brought with me the first day I came to live with them."
Though Noel has no idea how to look for his parents, he hopes that both still live in Legazpi City in Albay.
“I would love to connect to my roots,” he said. "Only God knows when this time will be, now I just have to be patience and trust in him.” —KBK, GMA News
“Finding my biological mother is gonna be life-changing,” Noel confided to GMA News Online in an email interview. “I would love to talk to her and just tell her I love her.”
Born December 11, 1982, Noel was left at an orphanage in Legazpi City, Albay, as an infant. When he reached the age of two, he got a new lease on life when he was adopted by Bob and Linda Hudson, a college professor and first grade teacher, respectively, through Hand-In-Hand, a Christian-based, non-denominational adoption agency active for the last 39 years.
Adopted by an American couple when he was only 2 years old, US-based Filipino Noel Amodia is now looking for his parents in the Philippines after overcoming a dark period in his life.
Spoiled child
“My childhood was great. To be honest I couldn't have ask for a better childhood or better family than the Hudsons. I was definitely a spoiled child growing up," he said.
He barely has memories of Tami, who was already in college by the time he was in middle school, but he remembers that tensions between him and Mandi grew strongest during their adolescence.
Despite this and his strict adoptive parents, Noel said he had fun at school and at the First Baptist Church.
True heritage
He also said he always knew that he was adopted “because of skin color was different from the Hudsons.”
However, it wasn't until he was in the fourth or fifth grade that he and his adoptive parents talked about his heritage. Since then, the thought of having parents and siblings in the Philippines never left his mind.
“All they (Hudsons) would tell me [is] that my mother was probably too poor to keep me so she gave me up for adoption. That was basically all I knew back then,” said Noel.
This didn't bother him at the time. He also said he never felt close association with the four other Asian children who went to his school.
“I basically felt I was a white kid, not a Filipino. [In] the church I went to, they were all white people going there. Over time skin tone didn't matter to me because I consider myself white,” he said.
Rebel years
And then adolescence came. Noel's resentment against the Hudsons' strict parenting — not to mention the knowledge that he was adopted — led him to rebel against his adoptive parents' and church's teachings.
Noel said he entered North Greenville University in Tigerville “for the partying.”
“All my life I had to listen to my parents but when I left for school I did what I wanted. I started to hang out with the wrong crowd and ended up dropping out of college," he said.
Night clubs, alcohol, and drugs sustained the young man throughout his twenties, leading him to sever ties with his adoptive family and faith.
A young Noel Amodia with his adoptive family.
Drugs
It was during this period that drugs became his solace because “that is the only thing I thought would make me happy.”
Soon, even a budding relationship with a girl was affected.
“I was dating a Vietnamese girl during that time. We dated all through her time at college, but the partying lifestyle I had messed our relationship up. I remember meeting her family and wishing that I grew up in an Asian household.
This longing, coupled with a stint in jail in 2007, eventually pushed him to sign up for rehabilitation at Freedom Farm Ministries, a Christian drug and alcohol rehabilitation center.
Rehab
Noel is currently in the last few stages of his treatment, and has enjoyed five months of sobriety. During his sessions at the rehab center, he confided his plans to find his parents to counselors and the Hudsons, with whom he has regained contact after many years.
“They are so supportive and happy that I am writing this email to you," he told GMA News Online. “The Hudsons are excited from what may happen from here. They still have everything I brought with me the first day I came to live with them."
Though Noel has no idea how to look for his parents, he hopes that both still live in Legazpi City in Albay.
“I would love to connect to my roots,” he said. "Only God knows when this time will be, now I just have to be patience and trust in him.” —KBK, GMA News
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