TAMUNA Museridze took a deep breath and made the call she had dreamed of for years—the moment she believed would bring her closer to finding her birth parents.
On the other end was the woman she thought was her biological mother, but the response was nothing like she expected.
Instead of a warm reunion, the woman screamed at her, denying any connection and saying she wanted nothing to do with her.
“It was more shocking than upsetting,” Tamuna recalls, still reeling from the unexpected reaction. “I was ready for anything, but her response was beyond anything I could have imagined.”
Despite the cold reception, Tamuna was determined to continue her search. She wanted to understand the circumstances of her adoption and, more importantly, learn the identity of her father.
Her quest began in 2016 after the death of the woman who raised her. While cleaning out the house, Tamuna found a birth certificate with her name but an incorrect birth date, which led her to suspect she had been adopted.
With this revelation, she started searching for answers, even creating a Facebook group called Vedzeb (I’m Searching) to connect with others who might help her find her birth parents.
What she uncovered, however, was far bigger than her own story—a massive baby trafficking scandal in Georgia that had affected tens of thousands of children. Over several decades, parents were told their newborns had died, only to have their babies sold to other families.
As a journalist, Tamuna had spent years investigating the issue, helping reunite other families, but she had never solved the mystery of her own origins. “It was both a professional investigation and a personal mission,” she says.
In the summer, Tamuna received a breakthrough through her Facebook group. A message came from someone in rural Georgia who knew of a woman who had concealed a pregnancy and given birth in Tbilisi around the time Tamuna was born—September 1984. The person believed this woman might be her mother and even provided a name.
THE REVELATION
Tamuna searched for the name online but found nothing. So, she posted an appeal on Facebook, asking for more information. Soon, a woman replied, identifying the woman in question as her aunt.
The woman agreed to a DNA test, and while they awaited the results, Tamuna made the fateful phone call to the woman she thought was her mother.
A week later, the DNA results confirmed that Tamuna was indeed related to the woman she had contacted, and with this new evidence, Tamuna managed to convince her mother to reveal the name of her father: Gurgen Khorava.
Overwhelmed by the discovery, Tamuna quickly found her father on Facebook—only to realize he had been following her for years.
Tamuna’s work as a journalist, reconnecting families, was well-known across Georgia, and Gurgen had been among her followers, unaware that he was part of her story.
“It was a huge surprise for him,” Tamuna says. “He didn’t even know my birth mother had been pregnant.”
The two arranged to meet in Gurgen’s hometown of Zugdidi, located about 160 miles from Tamuna’s home in Tbilisi. When they met, the 72-year-old instantly recognized her, and they shared a long-awaited hug.
“It was strange, but when he looked at me, he knew I was his daughter,” Tamuna recalls. “There were so many emotions.”
THE REUNION
As they spent time together, Tamuna learned more about her father’s life. Gurgen had once been a famous dancer with the State Ballet of Georgia, and Tamuna was pleased to discover that her daughters shared his passion for dance.
Gurgen invited his extended family to meet Tamuna, and the family immediately noticed the striking resemblance between her and her father. “Out of all his children, I look the most like him,” she says.
Despite the joy of reuniting with her father, Tamuna still had lingering questions about her adoption. Had she, like many others, been stolen at birth and sold? With her adoptive parents no longer alive, she had no one to turn to for answers.
THE RECOLLECTION
In October, a documentary crew filming Tamuna’s journey allowed her to ask her birth mother the truth. The meeting, however, revealed a painful reality: Tamuna had not been stolen. Her mother, overwhelmed by shame, had hidden her pregnancy and given her up for adoption.
Her birth parents were not in a relationship, and her mother had chosen to keep the pregnancy a secret. She traveled to Tbilisi in September 1984, where she gave birth to Tamuna and arranged for her adoption, telling no one about the child.
“It was painful to learn that I spent 10 days alone with her before the adoption,” Tamuna reflects. “I try not to think about that.”
Her mother, however, asked her to lie and tell people that she had been stolen. Tamuna refused, feeling it would be unfair to the thousands of other parents whose children had been taken from them.
“I couldn’t lie,” she says. “If I did, nobody would believe the mothers whose babies were really stolen.”
Her mother asked her to leave, and they have not spoken since. Despite the heartbreak, Tamuna reflects with gratitude on her journey.
“Would I do it all again? Of course,” she says. “I’ve discovered so much about my new family.”
Twins Amy and Ano were taken from their mother as babies and sold to different families, unaware of each other’s existence. Their paths crossed by chance, and in the process, they uncovered a chilling truth: they were not alone. Thousands of other children in Georgia had been stolen from hospitals in a widespread baby trafficking operation.
Their discovery came as they connected the dots of their own pasts, leading them to uncover a network of babies trafficked across the country. This revelation not only reunited the siblings but also exposed a dark chapter in Georgia’s history, where families had been torn apart and deceived for decades.
