Even though she has been given no choice in the matter, Thida seems to have few regrets. She now thinks of the boy as her own child, even though she knows there is no genetic link.

Before leaving, Thida and the other mothers were told that they must raise the children until their 18th birthday or face up to 20 years in jail. It was made clear that they will be continuously monitored to check that they have not given the child to the intended parents.

Then in December, Thida and the boy were allowed to go home.

I don’t mind that he is not related to us, it’s now impossible to give him away

But his arrival poses a dire financial problem. Her husband’s earnings of $250 per month are insufficient for bringing up a child, and because the baby wasn’t handed over to the intended parents, Thida never received the promised $10,000.

She would like to scrape together enough money to start a grocery business, in order to bring in a second income, but it’s unclear where that capital will come from.

Luckily, her husband loves the boy too.

“My husband always plays with the baby straight after he gets home from work,” says Thida. “He helps take care of him at night, so I can sleep.”

And Sre-Oun, the mother-in-law, is also deeply attached to the new member of the household.

“I don’t mind that he is not related to us, it’s now impossible to give him away,” she says. “He is so cute, even when he is screaming for people to play with him!”

When Thida took the baby to the health centre for a check-up, the staff called him a “Barang’s son”, the Khmer term for a mixed-race baby with a white father.

“I don’t tell them that he is lighter skinned because he is actually Chinese,” she says.

She likes it when market vendors coo over him. “They say that he has his father’s face, which is why he is very handsome,” she says. “It makes me feel so happy that people say he looks like his father.”

She has no plans to tell them how he was conceived, and won’t tell the boy either - until he is 18 anyway, and can decide for himself whether to look for his biological parents.

But it’s possible that the parents could reappear earlier than that. It’s unlikely that they know where Thida lives, but it’s not beyond the realms of possibility that they could find out.

Thida is relaxed about this prospect and would not try to stop them visiting.

“I know they love the baby as well, but they cannot take him away from me,” she says.

But Sre-Oun is more wary. “I am afraid that they will steal him away from us,” she says.