Woman finds birth mum two hours after putting plea on Facebook.

People love to complain about Facebook. But once in a while it does something truly incredible.

Last month, 34-year-old Kate-Madonna Hindes decided to put out an online plea to find her birth mother. Within hours, her birth mother, Aimee Sordelli, sent her a message saying, “I think I’m the woman you’re looking for.”

It had taken Hindes a long time to reach out. In the end, it was being diagnosed with anal precancer that pushed her into doing it. She had already battled cervical cancer, and discovered she had the BRCA2 gene, meaning she had a higher risk of developing breast cancer.

“I wanted to get some medical questions answered,” Hindes told ABC News in the US. “I told myself I had to really look deeper into this because I have two beautiful children and I want to live a long, happy life.”

Hindes, who lives in Minnesota, got in touch with the children’s home in Illinois where she was given up for adoption. They were able to give her a letter from her birth mother, a photo of her, and a name: Aimee, from Oak Park. Hindes posted the letter, photo and info to Facebook. In her post, she said she wasn’t looking for a mother because she already had an “utterly fantastic” one.

“She’s one of the first people I call when things go horribly right (or horribly wrong). She still kisses my forehead and tells me that everything is going to be fine. She cheers me on and reminds me to act with integrity. You should meet her too.”

Hindes's post. Image via Facebook.

Two hours after Hindes posted online, the niece of Sordelli's brother-in-law saw the photo and recognised who it was. She immediately contacted Sordelli.

Sordelli, 52, had been adopted herself. She had tried to get in touch with her own birth mother, but the woman had refused to meet her. Sordelli, however, was thrilled at the idea of meeting her daughter. She'd had when she was in her teens, brought up in a deeply religious family, with an episcopal priest for a father. After giving the baby girl up for adoption, in the hope of giving her a better life, she never had any more children. She battled cancer twice, the first time when she was 17.

Sordelli says she thought of her daughter "every single day".

“I wondered: ‘Is she okay? Is she happy? Does she have children? Where is she?’ Every day, always,” she told Pioneer Press.

But she decided it had to be her daughter's choice to make contact.

“Because she had to be okay with it. Her parents are her parents, they are her mum and dad. I’m just the birth mother. This is her story. I’m just the prologue; she is the book.”

After being alerted to the Facebook post, Sordelli sent Hindes a message:

“I would like to say you are beautiful. I believe you are my daughter. Oh my, I have been searching for you since the day I had to leave you, my love."

Hindes and Sordelli finally met - again - at St Paul airport last week, with TV cameras capturing the moment. There was laughter and tears.

Hindes and Sordelli, together again. Image via Kate-Madonna Hindes/Facebook.

Hindes says her birth mother is "just as wonderful, caring and down-to-earth I prayed she'd be".

"The kids adore her. Anything that Aimee wants to be involved in, I want her to be here."

She says at one point during the catch-up, she looked across her backyard and saw her mother sitting next to Sordelli, talking and laughing.

"That is a moment I'll never forget. It wasn't lost on me that inherent trust was developed before they ever met."

Sordelli describes it as a "wonderful love story".

"It’s come full circle and I’m just overwhelmed with joy."

Hindes hopes her story will inspire other people.

"No one is really ever so lost that they cannot be found - not if we pledge to help and share," she wrote in a Facebook post.