By Lisa Altmann
23andMe changed my life in ways I never imagined.   It gave me the tools to find “my truth” and my unexpected yet amazing origin story.  
<div id="attachment_27663" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-27663" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/IMG_20190724_113949-300x225.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-27663 size-medium" width="300" height="225" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/IMG_20190724_113949-300x225.jpg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/IMG_20190724_113949-768x576.jpg 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/IMG_20190724_113949-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/IMG_20190724_113949-880x660.jpg 880w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/IMG_20190724_113949-1180x885.jpg 1180w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />Lisa on a trip to Italy.</div>
I’ve always been overly curious. As a child, I would drive my parents nuts asking about anything and everything, including questions about our ancestors. I wanted to know where we came from but my parents had very little information to share with me.
I knew that their families had escaped Jewish persecution in Poland and Russia. They’d survived hardships, and immigrated to America through Ellis Island. I took a lot of pride in those Jewish roots. I was very close with my small but close-knit family but I wanted to know more about our ancestors.   
Then last year, at the age of 48, I took a 23andMe DNA test to discover more about my Polish and Russian roots. At first, my results confused me. Then, as the reality of what those results meant settled in, the truth turned my world upside down.
<h6>Unexpected Results</h6>
It turns out I do not have Russian, or Polish, or Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry. I’m Italian and Croatian.
Harder for me to handle is that I’m not biologically related to my parents or my two brothers, all of whom I love very much. That was a hard truth, but it was my truth. It is something that I am learning to accept with an open heart and gratitude.
I’m writing this because I hope it might help and comfort others in similar situations.  I wouldn&#8217;t change anything about using 23andMe, but anyone considering DNA testing should consider the possibility that they too might discover something unexpected and life-changing.  
Our DNA offers a way to discover more about what makes us unique, and those revelations can be exhilarating. But sometimes an unexpected result can have profound implications for both you and your family. 23andMe does a good job of letting you know about these possibilities both before you use the test and before you consent to participate in DNA Relatives, 23andMe’s featured to connect you with other customers with whom you share DNA. It’s essential to think of how a surprising result might impact your life as it did mine.

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				Lisa and her mom.
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				Lisa and her dad.
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<h6>Asking the Hard Questions</h6>
Talking to my parents about my results was the hardest conversation I’ve ever had in my entire life. I will never forget the conversation. It still rings in my ears as I could feel the fear in my dad’s voice as he was anticipating the big question. After nervously explaining my DNA results and research, I finally threw out the big question, “Was I adopted?” 
A storm of emotions engulfed my mom and dad when I asked that question. It hit them like a force of nature. I felt guilty for even asking. My parents are older now and more fragile, but I needed to know the truth, my truth. They both struggled to answer. As my mom cried in the background, my father said to me, “What does it matter? We love you, and you are our daughter.”
<h6>Nature and Nurture </h6>
He had a point. 
My parents had chosen me, raised me, and poured their love into me. They still love me deeply. They never made me feel anything but loved. I was their “first child” and the only girl in my family. I remember always feeling adored by my entire family. They’d encouraged my big personality to entertain them all with dance routines, singing, and comedy acts. I felt loved and cherished by my parents, grandparents, aunts, and uncles. This never changed even when my two younger brothers came into the picture. I would always be their daughter. 
<div id="attachment_27662" style="width: 235px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-27662" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/IMG_2607-3-e1572296660409-225x300.jpeg" alt="" class="wp-image-27662 size-medium" width="225" height="300" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/IMG_2607-3-e1572296660409-225x300.jpeg 225w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/IMG_2607-3-e1572296660409-768x1024.jpeg 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/IMG_2607-3-e1572296660409-660x880.jpeg 660w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/IMG_2607-3-e1572296660409-885x1180.jpeg 885w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/IMG_2607-3-e1572296660409-scaled.jpeg 1920w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px" />Lisa and her husband Jack.</div>
But the truth was that I had a biological mother who I later learned was still alive. I had a lineage that traced back to a small town in Southern Italy. I shared traits, <a href="https://www.23andme.com/dna-ancestry/">physical features</a>, and DNA with biological relatives I had yet to meet. All of that mattered too.
<h6>An Adoptees Search  </h6>
Learning that you are adopted, especially learning that truth in mid-life, can be disorienting. I’m not sure how I would have handled it if I learned this when I was younger. Learning this now meant I was emotionally mature enough to navigate through all the emotions that came with this discovery. 
I leaned on my core of special people like my amazing husband Jack, my wonderful brother Paul and his family, and my dear friend Claire, who helped me work through what it all meant. Many times when I share my story people ask if I am angry with my parents for not telling me I was adopted.  Anger is never an emotion that crossed my mind. I was shocked by my adoption. I was surprised. But more than anything, the emotions that welled up in me were of gratitude toward my loving parents. I feel thankful for the amazing life they have given me. I know without a doubt everything they’ve done has been with tremendous love, sacrifice and the best intentions for all of their children.
<h6>Finding My Roots</h6>
I am my parent’s daughter, but I learned that another woman had given birth to me.
I wanted to know more about my birth mother, and what part of her was in me. I’ve heard others talk about nature versus nurture. It isn’t one or the other. Yes, the parents that raised me made me who I am. But my genetics also play a role. Understanding that part of me is helping me understand more about who I am. 
<div id="attachment_27667" style="width: 235px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-27667" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/IMG_20190730_092016-225x300.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-27667 size-medium" width="225" height="300" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/IMG_20190730_092016-225x300.jpg 225w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/IMG_20190730_092016-768x1024.jpg 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/IMG_20190730_092016-660x880.jpg 660w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/IMG_20190730_092016-885x1180.jpg 885w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/IMG_20190730_092016-scaled.jpg 1920w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px" />Looking at records of in the village of Castelpagano, where Lisa&#8217;s Great Grandfather Michael was born.</div>
After I learned I was adopted I wanted to know who my birth mom was. I wanted to know whether we look alike or have similar personalities. I eventually found her with the help of an amazing genealogist named Linda Doyle who specialized in working with adoptees and DNA results. I went through the emotional process of writing a “Dear Mom” letter. In it, I told her about my life. I said I didn’t hold any anger or resentment toward her.  
<h6>A Better Life </h6>
My birth Mom called me in tears after receiving the letter. We talked for five hours. I learned about her, and her family. I found out we share some personality traits. And I learned of my biological family’s connection to Italy. I felt like we’d known each other my entire life. It gave me a better understanding of myself. It gave me tremendous peace. And yet, I also know that her decision saved me from the chaos of the life that would have been mine if I’d hadn’t been adopted. She gave me a better life by giving me up.
My birth mom was young and single and didn’t have the means to raise a child on her own. Her father died when she was 9. Her mom had been ill her entire life. She was 23.
My parents, who were having trouble conceiving, were told about a young woman in New York City desperately wanting a good family and a better life for her baby.  My mom and dad took me home to Washington D.C. where I was raised. My parents were eventually able to get pregnant and had two more children, my brothers. 
<div id="attachment_27659" style="width: 235px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-27659" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/IMG_0890-2-e1572297208331-225x300.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-27659 size-medium" width="225" height="300" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/IMG_0890-2-e1572297208331-225x300.jpg 225w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/IMG_0890-2-e1572297208331-768x1024.jpg 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/IMG_0890-2-e1572297208331-660x880.jpg 660w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/IMG_0890-2-e1572297208331-885x1180.jpg 885w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/IMG_0890-2-e1572297208331-scaled.jpg 1920w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px" />A photo of the village of Castelpagano in southern Italy. &#8220;My heart is full whenever I look at them,&#8221; Lisa said of the photos from the village.</div>
<h6>Loving My Family and Those Who Came Before </h6>
No one ever knew I was adopted. Now they do, but it doesn’t change that this is my family.
Revealing this secret was hard and at times painful. Despite that, it’s given me incredible insight. My husband and I, along with my brother and his family have traveled to Italy. I was able to visit the town near Naples where my ancestors came from. I got to see my biological great grandfather’s childhood home. I went to his church where I was shown family baptismal records going back centuries. It brought me to tears. 
It felt like coming home. I’ve learned so much about myself on this journey, but also about the people who loved me and came before me. 
 23andMe gave me so much knowledge, understanding, and truth, right when I needed it most. Although the process has not been easy, it has brought joy, peace, gratitude and a lot of love into my life. 
I hope to help and support others in their adoption discovery process as I learned so much from mine. There is beauty in our ancestral truths even when those truths change how we see the world and ourselves.
 
&nbsp;

23andMe Blog

23andMe Blog Team

This is My Truth, A Customer’s Point of View

It had to be more than just chance that Dave Stull and Eric Reynolds became cops.
<div id="attachment_27375" style="width: 235px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-27375" class="wp-image-27375 size-medium" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Dave-Eric-Press-Conference-225x300.jpg" alt="" width="225" height="300" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Dave-Eric-Press-Conference-225x300.jpg 225w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Dave-Eric-Press-Conference-660x880.jpg 660w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Dave-Eric-Press-Conference.jpg 720w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px" />Boynton Beach Police Officer Eric Reynolds, left, and Sgt. Dave Stull of the Orange County Sheriff&#8217;s Department. Photo Boynton Police Department.</div>
Looking back now Eric reckons, it’s the DNA.
He might be on to something.
The two men, who both live in Florida but had until recently never met, learned through 23andMe that they were not just brothers in blue, but half-brothers too.
Their story has, as Eric likes to say, “blown up.” Getting attention from the <a href="https://www.miamiherald.com/news/state/florida/article233400652.html">Miami Herald</a>, the <a href="https://nypost.com/2019/08/05/florida-cops-find-out-theyre-long-lost-brothers-from-ancestry-test/">New York Post</a>, and <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/us/florida-cops-half-brothers-dna-test">Fox News</a>, as well as a host of other publications.
With more and more people using 23andMe, we are increasingly hearing from customers like Eric and Dave who have discovered newfound relatives, siblings, or birth parents. But their story, with sort of parallel lives that only now have intersected, struck a chord.
Dave, a sergeant with the Orange County Sheriff’s Department who was adopted as an infant, said he tested in part because he never had much information about his biological family, or family medical history. He tested after both of his adoptive parents had passed away, mostly to see if he had any hidden health issues.
“I wanted to see if I was gonna go bald,” he joked. 
He’s not likely to go bald, but right away his 23andMe showed him something else entirely. After opting into DNA Relatives, Dave clicked over to see his results and at the top of the list was Eric, a predicted half-brother.
<div id="attachment_27376" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-27376" class="wp-image-27376 size-medium" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Dave-and-Eric-300x215.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="215" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Dave-and-Eric-300x215.jpg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Dave-and-Eric-768x552.jpg 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Dave-and-Eric.jpg 823w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />Dave, left, and Eric after meeting for the first time in person at Dave&#8217;s home.</div>
Dave, who for all his 50 years had been an only child, sent Eric a message:
“Good morning, my name is David Stull. According to 23andMe, we are half-brothers.”
Eric, a police officer at the Boynton Police Department, didn’t know what to make the message at first. He had a lot of questions, and he Googled Dave. Just looking at the picture, he knew it wasn’t a fluke. The brothers figured out that they shared the same father, who had been unaware of Dave’s birth. When Eric contacted his dad, he told him he had a “brand new bouncing baby boy.”
And now he had a big brother.
When Eric had the first test with 23andMe three years ago, it was less to find relatives and more to look at his ancestry and traits and suss out more about where his gung ho personality came from. He is the kind of guy who runs toward danger not away from it, and in 2013 received an award for his part in a part in the chase of a bank robbery suspect. He wondered if that was buried in his ancestry somewhere.
While genetics may explain why these two brothers both chose to work in law enforcement, they also both had family connections that nurtured that interest. For Eric, it was his mom, who served as a homicide detective in Miami.
For Dave, it all tracks back to when he was 4 years old when a cousin he looked up to was a police officer. His cousin gave him some department patches, a blue hat, and handcuffs. Ever since then he knew he wanted to be a cop, he said.
As the two try to make up for lost time, they are also planning a big family gathering. They’ll be coming together for Eric’s retirement and give a chance for Dave to meet his birth father in person as well as another half brother and half-sister.
Meanwhile, the two brother cops continue to marvel at the different coincidences in their lives.
&#8220;We&#8217;re still learning so much about each other,” Eric said at a press conference given by the Boynton Police Department about their discovery. “It&#8217;s amazing.&#8221;

Brother Cops

When they met for the first time, Tamara Miller and Leslie Wheeler were struck by their similarities. They both are Korean adoptees, and both share a cheerful disposition and closets full of colorful hats and clothes. They even carried nearly identical purses at that first meeting. 
<div id="attachment_27321" style="width: 235px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-27321" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/SBYT8-225x300.jpeg" alt="" class="wp-image-27321 size-medium" width="225" height="300" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/SBYT8-225x300.jpeg 225w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/SBYT8.jpeg 480w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px" />Leslie, left, and Tamara.</div>
&nbsp;
Though they were strangers, the two share the same birth mother. And beyond all the uncanny things they had in common, the sisters noticed a deeper connection right off: an immediate sense of sisterhood and love. 
&nbsp;
“You wouldn’t know that siblings could be so similar just through blood,” said Tamara. 
&nbsp;
She was stunned by all she had in common with her newfound sister, and yet “we couldn’t have been raised more differently or led more different lives,” she said.

<h6>Soldier Fathers</h6>
The sisters never met as children, and now, with children of their own, they’re making up for lost time and filling in the blanks in their family story. Their story is reminiscent of 23andMe stories from other Korean adoptees. 
<div id="attachment_27316" style="width: 299px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-27316" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/bQQZu-e1564598306146-289x300.jpeg" alt="" class="size-medium wp-image-27316" width="289" height="300" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/bQQZu-e1564598306146-289x300.jpeg 289w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/bQQZu-e1564598306146-768x798.jpeg 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/bQQZu-e1564598306146-985x1024.jpeg 985w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/bQQZu-e1564598306146-846x880.jpeg 846w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/bQQZu-e1564598306146-1135x1180.jpeg 1135w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 289px) 100vw, 289px" />Tamara&#8217;s birth father, Harry Andrews, with her and Leslie&#8217;s birth mother.</div>
Both of their fathers had served in the Army in Korea. 
&nbsp;
Leslie was living with her grandmother when Tamara was born. Leslie’s father was white, while Tamara’s father was an African American GI. The family was poor and already struggling to make ends meet. Tamara was placed in an orphanage and adopted as an infant. Leslie’s adoption happened much later.
&nbsp;
“I had a hard life in Korea,” she said. “The country was poor and we were starving. It was a miracle if we ate two meals a day. Going to school was really hard. I just didn’t fit in with the Korean kids because I was so different looking. I was a little girl living in a country that wasn’t accepting of half-American kids.” 
&nbsp;
Leslie had lived with their mother and her American soldier father until the age of 2. When he returned to America, saying he’d come back for them. Then she lived with her mother and relatives until her mother passed away. Leslie was adopted by an American family at the age of 13.
&nbsp;
<h6>A Short History of Adoptions from Korea</h6>
The sisters’ story is part of a wave of orphaned and mixed-race Korean children adopted after the Korean War by American families. Now well into adulthood, many of these adoptees have turned to DNA testing. They hope to learn more about their cultural roots, and in some cases connect with biological family.
<div id="attachment_27320" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-27320" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/aGdiP-e1564598558120-300x293.jpeg" alt="" class="wp-image-27320 size-medium" width="300" height="293" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/aGdiP-e1564598558120-300x293.jpeg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/aGdiP-e1564598558120.jpeg 467w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />Tamara as an infant in Korea.</div>
&nbsp;
International adoptions didn’t really begin in the US until the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Displaced_Persons_Act_of_1948">Displaced Persons Act of 1948</a>, which allowed orphans from WWII admission to the US for permanent residence. But it wasn’t until 1955, and the <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=HDklDwAAQBAJ&#038;pg=PA7&#038;lpg=PA7&#038;dq=%22Relief+of+Certain+War+Orphans%22+korean+adoption&#038;source=bl&#038;ots=ocLy46VVbp&#038;sig=ACfU3U0eq2jwpXxoJ5Mq9Gicbzh7ZMhARA&#038;hl=en&#038;sa=X&#038;ved=2ahUKEwjQ99Ky163jAhUFOH0KHek0B5gQ6AEwCXoECAkQAQ#v=onepage&#038;q=%22Relief%20of%20Certain%20War%20Orphans%22%20korean%20adoption&#038;f=false">Bill for Relief of Certain War Orphans,</a> that large scale international adoptions — initially from Korea — to the US were possible. Today China is the main hub of international adoption. But for at least <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1536504211427866">40 years</a> most international adoptions originated in Korea, with at least <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1536504211427866">200,000</a> children adopted worldwide. That only lessened in the late 1980s after Korea began limiting the number of children who could be adopted out of the country.
<h6>Holt International</h6>
Early on in the United States, it was standard practice for many families to Americanize their adopted child as quickly as possible. That often meant cutting them off from their cultural roots. Thus many generations of adoptees were estranged from their cultural heritage and had very little if any information about their birth families.
<div id="attachment_27330" style="width: 231px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-27330" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Tamara-before-her-adoption-221x300.jpeg" alt="" class="wp-image-27330 size-medium" width="221" height="300" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Tamara-before-her-adoption-221x300.jpeg 221w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Tamara-before-her-adoption-648x880.jpeg 648w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Tamara-before-her-adoption.jpeg 747w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 221px) 100vw, 221px" />A photo of Leslie before her adoption.</div>
With the hindsight of more than half a century of adoptions from Korea, the groups that handled many of these adoptions now see the importance of these cultural and family connections, said Susan Soonkeum Cox, Vice President of Policy &amp; External Affairs at <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holt_International_Children%27s_Services">Holt International Children&#8217;s Services</a>, an adoption agency that helps American families adopt children from outside the United States, including Korea. The couple who originally started Holt, Harry and Bertha Holt, were also instrumental in passing the Bill for Relief of Certain War Orphans.
&nbsp;
“We (now) have the benefit of several generations of adoptees,” said Soonkeum Cox, a Korean adoptee herself. “We’ve come to be aware that a child’s history, where they’re from and their beginning. (It) is very much a part of who they are as they go throughout their lifetime.” 
<h6>Reconnecting with Korean Ancestry</h6>
That desire to connect has expanded the services Holt now offers. The agency assists with family reunification, “motherland tours” of Korea, and Korean culture education. In particular, Holt offers “heritage camps,” where adoptees can learn more about the Korean language, dance and cuisine and discuss issues of identity. Other organizations like <a href="https://meandkorea.org/">Me and Korea</a> also provide adoptees with opportunities to learn more about Korean culture, connect with fellow adoptees and travel to Korea as well. In addition, Holt and some other agencies <a href="https://www.holtinternational.org/pas/adoptee/korea-2-adoptees/search-for-birth-family/">assist</a> adoptees over the age of 18 with finding more paper records and other information about their birth and adoptions, sometimes even connecting them with biological family.
&nbsp;
But frequently because of the nature of some of these early adoptions or the lack of a clear paper record, DNA is the only option for learning more. As companies like 23andMe have grown, so too have the chances of adoptees <a href="https://www.23andme.com/dna-ancestry/">finding relatives</a>. The nonprofit <a href="https://www.325kamra.org/">325 Kamra even </a>distributes DNA kits to Koreans and Korean adoptees worldwide, to try to help Korean adoptees find family. And then there are Facebook groups like the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/471938126211984/">KAD 23andme Results Group</a>, where Korean adoptees can share their results, questions, and concerns. 
<h6>Other Korean Adoptee Stories</h6>
Embracing testing has resulted in a wave of stories like Tamara’s and Leslie’s.
<div id="attachment_26535" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-26535" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/siblings-2-300x269.jpg" alt="" class="size-medium wp-image-26535" width="300" height="269" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/siblings-2-300x269.jpg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/siblings-2.jpg 480w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />Justin and Renee.</div>
&nbsp;
Most recently a <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Family/women-adopted-South-Korea-learn-sisters/story?id=64367065">pair of sisters</a> adopted from Korea found each other through 23andMe, and learned they grew up just 30 minutes from each other in Michigan. 23andMe also helped reunite identical twins <a href="https://blog.23andme.com/23andme-customer-stories/23andme-reunites-identical-twins-separated-birth/">Amanda and Katey</a>. Born in Seoul, and adopted by different American families, the sisters, both in their 30s, connected for the first time after using 23andMe. 
Another pair of sibling adoptees from Korea, <a href="https://blog.23andme.com/23andme-customer-stories/siblings-reunite-using-23andme/">Justin and Renee</a>, were also well into adulthood before finding each other. Justin had been abandoned on the steps of a theater in Seoul, when he was a toddler. The next day, his sister Renee, who was 5 at the time, was left at a market. They reunited 30 years later on Justin’s 36th birthday. And testing has helped others simply clear up mysteries. For example, another pair of sisters adopted together from Korea, grew up not knowing for sure that they were related. 23andMe confirmed that they indeed were <a href="https://www.popsugar.com/family/What-Like-Being-Adopted-From-Korea-White-Family-45954580">biological sisters</a>.
<h6>Tamara and Leslie</h6>
Although they all share a connection to Korea, each story is unique. 
&nbsp;
For Leslie and Tamara, the story isn’t just about sisters connecting, but also about coming to terms with their mixed ancestry, and filling in the gaps of their family history. They were able to find each other because Leslie’s son, Noelin Wheeler, had tested and matched with Tamara on 23andMe. Leslie didn’t even know she had a sister until Noelin, a tattoo artist known for his appearance on SpikeTV’s show Ink Master, found Tamara.
<div id="attachment_27317" style="width: 241px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-27317" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Leslie-and-Noelin-e1564598669982-231x300.jpeg" alt="" class="wp-image-27317 size-medium" width="231" height="300" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Leslie-and-Noelin-e1564598669982-231x300.jpeg 231w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Leslie-and-Noelin-e1564598669982.jpeg 655w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 231px) 100vw, 231px" />Leslie and her son Noelin.</div>
&nbsp;
When Noelin texted his mom Tamara’s photo, she immediately knew they were related.
&nbsp;
“I looked at Tamara and felt like I was staring at my mother,” Leslie said.
&nbsp;
The two have been able to meet each others’ families and spend time with each other. They’ve become a part of each other’s lives, seeing each other a couple times a year and talking weekly. 
&nbsp;
“Leslie has given me a sense of identity,” said Tamara. “As an orphan you don’t always know why you are the way you are, why you think or react the way you do. Now I understand myself better.” 
&nbsp;
These last three years, in particular, have been especially life changing for Tamara. Not only did she find Leslie, last year she found five paternal siblings, all of whom ended up living close to her. She enjoys spending time with them regularly, as well.
&nbsp;
“Generations of people have been brought together as a result of these DNA tests, and all of our lives have been enriched,” said Tamara.

Seoul Sisters and Brothers

Guillaume’s dad once referred to him in a poem as “my son of three fathers,” but he should have written: “My son of three fathers and three mothers.”
<div id="attachment_26997" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-26997" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Guillaume-Bordier-300x214.png" alt="" class="size-medium wp-image-26997" width="300" height="214" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Guillaume-Bordier-300x214.png 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Guillaume-Bordier.png 512w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />Guillaume Bordier</div>
His parents adopted him during the final years of the war in Vietnam. After they divorced, he added a stepdad and stepmom to his family. But Guillaume also had an unknown third father and mother. All he knew was that his birth father was likely an African American serviceman, and his birth mom was Vietnamese.
Raised in France, Guillaume was the only dark-skinned boy in his school. He went on to become a virtuoso ballet dancer and choreographer but always wrestled with his identity and a desire to know more about his origins.
“Because of my physical characteristics, I knew that I was part Vietnamese and part African-American,” Guillaume said. “But I knew nothing else.”
<h6>Searching</h6>
Although Guillaume’s father once said, his son’s “eyes reflect the light of every corner of the world,” Guillaume did not feel connected in that way.
“I always wondered who I was, and what my real origins were,” he said. “And as an adopted child, no matter what we say, we are always looking for our roots.”
Opening up his 23andMe Ancestry Composition results for the first time, with it’s mosaic of colors representing the global regions from which his DNA originated, gave Guillaume another tangible representation of who he was and where he was from. And it opened up a door into the mysteries of his origins.
His arresting story of discovery, documented in a film directed by Jésus Castro-Ortega called &#8220;<a href="http://www.andanafilms.com/catalogueFiche.php?idFiche=1254&#038;rub=Nouveaut%C3%A9">In Balance</a>,&#8221; was first shown last summer on French National television. An English-subtitled version, distributed by Andana Films in the US, is now streaming on Amazon Prime and<a href="https://link.tubi.tv/0oiLXvgRMV"> Tubi</a>.
The opening scenes of the film include Guillaume seeing his 23andMe results for the first time.
“It changed the course of my life,” he said.
<h6>The Wolf Cub</h6>
The French couple who’d adopted Guillaume Bordier worried that he might not survive.
<div id="attachment_26998" style="width: 232px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-26998" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Guillaume-at-Orphanage-222x300.png" alt="" class="size-medium wp-image-26998" width="222" height="300" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Guillaume-at-Orphanage-222x300.png 222w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Guillaume-at-Orphanage.png 379w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 222px) 100vw, 222px" />Photo of Guillaume at a Vietnamese orphanage before his adoption.</div>
Malnourished, the 14-month-old weighed just 14 pounds and was in wretched physical condition. Sickly and slight for his age, his mother nursed him back to health. The young Guillaume was like an “abandoned wolf cub,” she once said.
At first, Guillaume, who would go on to become a powerful, and graceful ballet dancer, struggled just to walk. He didn’t take his first steps until he was two-and-a-half. Beyond those physical obstacles, Guillaume had to overcome the challenges put in front of him due to the color of his skin.
“Ballet dancing was, in France at that time, a solely white universe,” he said.
Yet dance was everything to him.
“I could have been someone who is violent,” Guillaume said. “But dance saved me. It was my therapy for every situation.”
His father at one point forbade him from dancing saying ballet is “not for boys.” So Guillaume would draw elaborate storyboards of the dances he had already memorized, complete with the positioning of every dancer, their names, and, of course, his role in the production.
That early obsession became his profession as Guillaume went on to dance in New York and Paris. Over time he added choreographer to his job title. But in the last few years, as Guillaume neared 50, the questions around his origins became more persistent. He often thought of where he’d come from, about the war, and what it must have been like for his birth mother to give him up.
<div id="attachment_26999" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-26999" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Guillaume-and-His-Mother-300x300.png" alt="" class="size-medium wp-image-26999" width="300" height="300" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Guillaume-and-His-Mother-300x300.png 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Guillaume-and-His-Mother-150x150.png 150w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Guillaume-and-His-Mother-271x271.png 271w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Guillaume-and-His-Mother-372x372.png 372w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Guillaume-and-His-Mother.png 449w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />Guillaume and his mother in France.</div>
In dreams he imagined that moment and what she might have said as she left her baby:
“’You will grow up not knowing your mother and father,’” he imagined her saying to him. “’You will keep wondering if we’re dead or alive. My son I won’t be there but here is your life.’”
<h6>My Brother?</h6>
Both nervous and excited Guillaume and his partner, Francois, sat down one night in 2016 to look at his 23andMe results for the first time. Anxious he didn’t know what to expect.
“Ever since I learned you could use DNA testing to find your origins I’ve wanted to do it,” Guillaume said.
His first reaction to the results was awe. 
“Incredible,” he said when he saw the colorful wheel representing the regions to which his DNA connected him.
<div id="attachment_27000" style="width: 302px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-27000" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Guillaumes-AC-292x300.png" alt="" class="size-medium wp-image-27000" width="292" height="300" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Guillaumes-AC-292x300.png 292w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Guillaumes-AC.png 394w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 292px) 100vw, 292px" />Guillaume&#8217;s Ancestry Composition includes the rich mix of his African American and Vietnamese roots.</div>
Guillaume saw the large chunk of West Africa ancestry he inherited from his African American birth father, who also passed on to him a small but significant amount of European ancestry. He was surprised to learn that along with his Vietnamese ancestry from his birth mother he inherited a large amount of Chinese and Chinese Dai ancestry. The African and European half of his ancestry came from his father, and the Vietnamese and Chinese came from his mother.
“So I’m half American,” he said at one point after absorbing it all.
But it was when he looked at his <a href="https://www.23andme.com/dna-ancestry/">DNA Relatives</a> that he stopped short. At the top was a connection to a man he’d never met but with whom he shares about a quarter of his DNA.
“My brother,” he said and then corrected himself. “My half brother. This is so intense…Can you imagine?”
<h6>Back Into the Matrix</h6>
Guillaume marveled at the odds of finding his brother, Joe.
<div style="float: right; text-align: justified; width: 300px; background-color: #eee; padding: 15px; margin-left: 10px;">
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Whether it’s about finding a long-lost relative, gaining insights into your health, or simply recounting the fun you’ve had while exploring your DNA, we want to hear your story. We may even want to feature it on our website or in a television commercial.
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Joe was also born in Vietnam, but almost four years after Guillaume. He’d also been given up after birth, but in his case, he’d been raised by an elderly woman in his village. When he turned 18, he was able to come to the United States.
Guillaume and Joe finally connected via email and then talked on the phone. Joe, who now lives in Tennessee with his family, was able to tell Guillaume that he has at least seven siblings who are all from the same mother. 
Most striking of all for Guillaume was that their mother was still alive, and had fled Vietnam to live in the United States. Joe could in turn introduce Guillaume to their mother, as well as a half-sister who both live in New Orleans.
Not long after that, he connected with her for the first time in an emotional video chat. At one point he broke down crying trying to explain to her what he is feeling.
“Mom, mom,” he said. “I’ve been searching for you all my life mom.”
A few months later, Guillaume comes to the US for a visit and drives with Joe to visit with their mother. In the days leading up the meeting, Guillaume felt he was living in an altered reality. He couldn’t sleep; he couldn’t help but go back over his life, thinking about everything, almost reviewing his existence in rewind.
“I’m starting over, going back into the matrix,” he said.
<h6>Like a Hurricane</h6>
Nothing is completely clear — the sequence of events, the names, and places — but sitting with his birth mother after their first emotional meeting Guillaume begins to get the first sketchy details of his origins. She spoke in broken English and sometimes in Vietnamese that was translated by her daughter, and Guillaume’s half-sister, Phung.
Their mother worked in the laundry near Camp Tien Sha, a Naval base in Danang that housed a battalion of Marines. Guillaume’s father was a young Marine.
<div id="attachment_27001" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-27001" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Guillaume-Birth-Mom-300x284.png" alt="" class="size-medium wp-image-27001" width="300" height="284" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Guillaume-Birth-Mom-300x284.png 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Guillaume-Birth-Mom-768x726.png 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Guillaume-Birth-Mom-1024x968.png 1024w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Guillaume-Birth-Mom-880x832.png 880w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Guillaume-Birth-Mom-1180x1116.png 1180w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Guillaume-Birth-Mom.png 1438w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />Guillaume and his birth mother after meeting for the first time.</div>
They had started as friends but soon turned into something more. They were together for a few months in 1968 and 1969, she said.
“He looked like you,” she told Guillaume, adding that his skin was lighter like his, and that, “everybody loved him.”
Sometimes he would stay with her, she told him. Sometimes he’d be gone on missions for many days or weeks, and she would not see him. Then one day she was told he died in combat. She was devastated. She soon discovered she was pregnant.
Some of those details were comforting to hear, but Guillaume also had so many more questions.
What was his name? She wasn’t sure, John or James perhaps. She didn’t know his rank or his age. She wasn’t sure the date of his death or where.
She told Guillaume that after she’d heard the news, she became distraught and later became ill. When Guillaume was born both she and the new baby were sick, and they both began losing weight, she told him. At some point, she left him with a family that she trusted to care for him so that she could work in Saigon. When she returned they were gone, and unbeknownst to her had taken Guillaume to an orphanage.
That detail was important for Guillaume because he believed it meant she’d never abandoned him. She’d told him that she’d gone back and searched for him. She’d bike the countryside looking. His sister, Phung said that their mother never stopped thinking about him.
“You have to understand that Vietnamese people cherish boys,” she said.
Their mother had never stopped praying that she’d find him, and then like a miracle, he finds her.
It’s all a bit overwhelming and unbelievable. Guillaume didn&#8217;t just find his mother, but seven siblings.
“It’s like a hurricane in the brain,” he said. “An emotional (hurricane) Katrina. I didn’t expect that.”
<h6>I Think I Am Your Son</h6>
You can’t answer five decades of questions in one week, Guillaume said.
When he returned to France Guillaume shared photos of his trip with his adopted mother.
His mom immediately felt sympathy toward the woman who gave him up so long ago.
“This must have reminded her of a lot of things she wanted to forget,” Guillaume’s mother told him. “She must have thought you were dead. Can you imagine? She is very strong.”
But as the weeks and months went on after his visit, more questions emerged. Was his father really dead?
<div id="attachment_27004" style="width: 224px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-27004" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Guillaume-3-214x300.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-27004 size-medium" width="214" height="300" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Guillaume-3-214x300.jpg 214w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Guillaume-3-768x1076.jpg 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Guillaume-3-731x1024.jpg 731w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Guillaume-3-628x880.jpg 628w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Guillaume-3-843x1180.jpg 843w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Guillaume-3-scaled.jpg 1828w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 214px) 100vw, 214px" />Guillaume is still search, trying to find the identity of his birth father.</div>
“I can’t be certain,” he said. 
Months after his visit he found another half-sister living in Texas, but closer to him in age. They met in person in the summer of 2018.
Guillaume found a few second and third cousins on his birth father’s side, but so far no insights into his birth father’s name or whether he died in Vietnam or not. He found the name of a young African American Marine, James Albert Sanders, who’d been killed in combat in May of 1969, and left a note on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund “Wall of Faces.”
“Maybe you are my father,” Guillaume wrote. “If you are my father, I want you to know that I always looked for you. If you are my father, let me tell you that I am very, very proud to be your son … I became not a soldier but a soloist ballet dancer &#8230; If you are my father, let me tell you that I miss you so much and I love you with all my heart.”
&nbsp;

Guillaume’s Search

<div id="attachment_26752" style="width: 236px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-26752" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Brian-JJ-226x300.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-26752 size-medium" width="226" height="300" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Brian-JJ-226x300.jpg 226w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Brian-JJ.jpg 385w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 226px) 100vw, 226px" />Brian, left, and his brother JJ, with whom he recently connected.</div>
&#8220;What&#8217;s going on, my brother?&#8221; said Brian Chavarria. &#8220;Man, it is good to see you.&#8221;
These were Brian’s first words to his newfound biological brother, JJ Peck when they met earlier this year. This life changing moment at the John Glenn International Airport was the culmination of years of ups and downs for Brian, and a lifetime of searching for answers about his biological family. 
Brian Chavarria was born in Dayton, Ohio, but raised in California by his adoptive parents. All he knew of his origins was that as newborn he’d been &nbsp;dropped off on a doorstep in California. He’d been adopted when he was three years old. Life didn’t come easy for Brian growing up in an abusive household in East Los Angeles. He eventually fled that abusive home by bike, and made contact with a foster family he had lived with as a child who took him back in. 
Brian never really knew where he came from or anything about &nbsp;his biological family.
At least not until his wife tried <a href="http://www.23andMe.com">23andMe</a> and then encouraged him to use 23andMe as well. 
“What could it hurt?” he thought.
After years of search unsuccessfully, Brian had given up on finding his birth mother or father. But after four decades of not knowing anything about his birth family — not even their ancestry — his results came back with information not just about his <a href="https://www.23andme.com/dna-ancestry/">ancestry</a> but also about <a href="https://www.23andme.com/dna-ancestry/#toc-dnar">distant cousins</a>. Six months later, he received an email. It was from a first cousin, who sent a message that &nbsp;said: &#8220;This shows you are my first cousin. Tell me your story.”
He shared his backstory, and his cousin messaged back that he would talk to his mom and ask her if she knew anything that would help. Soon thereafter, Brian got another message from his cousin:
“Actually, I think I can fill you in,” his cousin said. 
What followed was something out of Brian’s dreams. After connecting with his cousin, Brian started to learn more about his family, and learn that his family had been looking for him too. He learned that his birth mother had suffered from mental illness, which led to her needing to give Brian up for adoption. 
What he learned next led to him breaking down in tears. His birth mother had passed away in 2015, before he had had a chance to meet her. 
“I was so close, yet so far,” Brian said. 
Then, Brian’s cousin dropped another bombshell. Brian had two brothers and two sisters who had similar troubled childhoods and had been raised by different families. A few of these siblings had been searching for him too. Since connecting with his cousin this past May, Brian has started to build relationships with his biological siblings. Their bond grew so strong that his brother JJ drove to Portland and helped move him back to his home state of Ohio, the place where he was born and where his story began. Since moving to Ohio, he began working with JJ at a drug and alcohol rehabilitation center where they are trying to make a difference in the lives of others. 
“It’s a start of a whole new world really. I get to spend it with my brother and it doesn’t get much better than that.”

A Reunion Decades in the Making

<div id="attachment_26720" style="width: 304px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-26720" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Yadira-2-294x300.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-26720 size-medium" width="294" height="300" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Yadira-2-294x300.jpg 294w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Yadira-2.jpg 618w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 294px) 100vw, 294px" />Yadira Riveria in an undated photo.</div>
Yadira Rivera, a strong independent woman, always told her three young children about the daughter she gave up before they were born.
&nbsp;
Her children — Daniel, Marcos, and Raquel — never forgot that they had another sister out there. They remembered, even after the trauma of losing their mom. Yadira died after being struck by a police car chasing a suspect on the street in front of their home in San Francisco. They were young — 8,9 and 11 — but they remembered their mother’s reflective tone as she told them about having to give up her infant daughter.
&nbsp;
“Whenever she talked about it she got very somber,” said Daniel.
&nbsp;
They learned that Yadira had gotten pregnant at 17, and was forced to give up her baby. Daniel, Marcos, and Raquel always knew their sister was out there somewhere, they just had no idea how to find her.
&nbsp;
“We said ‘we could meet her one day and not even know it was her,’” Daniel said.
<div id="attachment_26727" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-26727" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Lucianna-Her-Siblings-300x300.png" alt="" class="size-medium wp-image-26727" width="300" height="300" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Lucianna-Her-Siblings-300x300.png 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Lucianna-Her-Siblings-150x150.png 150w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Lucianna-Her-Siblings-271x271.png 271w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Lucianna-Her-Siblings-372x372.png 372w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Lucianna-Her-Siblings-574x574.png 574w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Lucianna-Her-Siblings.png 640w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />On the left, Lucianna, as a young girl, on the right Yadira with her children, Daniel, Raquel, and Marcos.</div>
<h6>The Search</h6>
They always hoped that somehow they might find her. Little did they know that their older sister was looking and wondering too.  

But Lucianna didn’t know she had a sister and two brothers. She was trying to find her mother.
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Adopted by the daughter of the nurse who delivered her as a baby, Lucianna spent years wondering about her birth mother. She didn’t start looking in earnest until about eight years ago. At that time, she found names scribbled on the back of an her adoptive grandfather’s old business card. On it were the names of her birth parents and the the aunt her birth mother lived with in San Francisco.   Lucianna hired a private investigator who found an old address, and Lucianna sent a letter there but never heard back. 

“After I sent the letter I just stopped looking,” she said.

But last year with her daughter Bianca asking more and more questions, and finally asking if they could use 23andMe to find out more about her mother’s ancestry, the search was reignited. Lucianna bought her daughter a kit as well as one for herself. Using other resources, Bianca was able to find Lucianna’s mother’s citizenship papers, divorce records and then her record of death. That last bit of information was a huge blow to Lucianna. She thought that was the end of her search.

“I had to emotionally let go,” she said, realizing that she would never get to meet her birth mom. 

<h6>Finding A Connection</h6>
<div id="attachment_26724" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-26724" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/ms-9VJNpZ-225x300.jpeg" alt="" class="wp-image-26724" width="300" height="400" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/ms-9VJNpZ-225x300.jpeg 225w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/ms-9VJNpZ-768x1024.jpeg 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/ms-9VJNpZ-660x880.jpeg 660w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/ms-9VJNpZ.jpeg 800w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />In the foreground Raquel, with, Marcos, left, Lucianna and on the right Daniel soon after all meeting in person for the first time.</div>
But just a couple of weeks later, Bianca’s <a href="https://www.23andme.com/dna-ancestry/">23andMe</a> results came in. Bianca saw that she matched with a man named Daniel, who at first was predicted to be a close cousin. He had also posted on 23andMe that he was looking for more information about his mother’s family who had come to the United States from Nicaragua, but had since passed away. 
Lucianna, who had not initially opted into the DNA Relatives portion of 23andMe, opted in and immediately matched with Daniel, who was identified as a half brother. It was a surprise for both of them.
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Daniel said he hadn’t expected to find any close family when he first tested. He wanted to know more about his mother’s ancestral origins. 

“My twin girls … decided to purchase 23andMe for me as a Christmas present,” Daniel said. “I wanted more information about my Nicaraguan heritage. I had many unanswered questions, and I couldn’t go straight to the source.”
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Daniel said he hadn’t expected to find any close family when he first tested. He wanted to know more about his mother’s ancestral origins. 

“My twin girls … decided to purchase 23andMe for me as a Christmas present,” Daniel said. “I wanted more information about my Nicaraguan heritage. I had many unanswered questions, and I couldn’t go straight to the source.”

“She read my story and commented on how (the information about my mom) resembled her mother&#8217;s mother,” Daniel said.

Although the percentage of shared DNA indicated that Bianca might be a first cousin, Daniel noted her age, the amount of shared DNA and her Nicaraguan ancestry, and deduced that it could only mean one thing. 

“After a few more messages I told Bianca that her mother might be my sister,” he said, still a little stunned by finding his long lost sister.

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<h6>Meeting for the First Time</h6>
Luciana and Daniel were soon on the phone. 

“The first thing he said was ‘I’ve always known you were out there,’” Lucianna said.

Just that idea alone was affirming for Lucianna, knowing that her birth mother loved her and passed that love for her to her children.

Daniel, who was already driving to California with his wife for their 20th anniversary, decided to take a detour to Davis to meet Lucianna and her family. When they first hugged, Daniel said it felt like he was holding onto a piece of his mother.

A month later, a few days from the 40th anniversary of their mother’s death, <a href="https://www.dayton.com/lifestyles/alone-more-centerville-woman-and-family-unite-with-sister-they-always-knew-was-out-there-somewhere/hy2LK54pJtGu2z8NLjQpII/">Lucianna was in Ohio</a> with her children, visiting with Daniel, Marcos, Raquel, and all her new nieces and nephews.

“It’s been beyond belief,” said Daniel.

Lucianna looks so much like their mother that when they first hugged he didn’t want to let go. For Lucianna seeing the photos of her mother for the first time, seeing her eyes instantly connected her. Meeting and getting to know her siblings has transformed her.<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Note-to-their-mom-300x169.png" alt="" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-26728" width="300" height="169" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Note-to-their-mom-300x169.png 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Note-to-their-mom.png 640w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />

”This has completely changed my life,” Lucianna said. “I am 53 years old. I feel so different. I feel rooted.”

As they gathered together one evening talking back and forth, Lucianna felt almost like they were all children again.

During the freewheeling conversation the lights kept dimming and Marcos said, ‘Oh it’s just the motion sensor,’ and Lucianna said, “No it’s mom.” 

All of Yadira’s children were finally together like they should be, like she had always wanted.

23andMe Reunites Yadira’s Family

A Korean adoptee living in Tennessee as a kid, Ben rarely saw kids that looked like him.
<div id="attachment_26561" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-26561" class="size-medium wp-image-26561" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Pickler-Ben-300x200.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="200" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Pickler-Ben-300x200.jpg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Pickler-Ben.jpg 750w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />Pickler &amp; Ben Host Kellie Pickler (left), with Ben and his brother Jeff, and Host Ben Aaron.</div>
“Growing up, I knew very few Asians, let alone Koreans, and always wondered if I actually still had family somewhere in this world,” said the 29-year-old Air Force sergeant.
He was happy and felt fortunate to have been adopted by such a loving family, but he always wondered.

Several hundred miles away, Jeff, now a 27-year-old public relations man, had been going through the same thing.
While his parents sent him to a Korean school each Saturday to try and keep him connected to his Korean ancestry, Jeff wondered about his origins.
“It may sound trivial, but I&#8217;ve never met someone who resembles me,” he said.
That all changed after the two men — half brothers — connected using 23andMe.
“By some weird chance, we joined 23andMe within a year of each other,” Jeff said.
Connected using 23andMe, the two emailed, texted, and talked on the phone, but they hadn’t met in person until this September when the talk show Pickler &amp; Ben brought them into the studio.
Check out their story <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFcZp2tktbk&amp;feature=youtu.be">here</a>.
<iframe loading="lazy" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/eFcZp2tktbk" width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>

23andMe Connects Brothers

Justin was only two when he was abandoned on the steps of a theater in Seoul, South Korea, while his five year-old sister, Renee, was found the next day at a market with a note in her pocket.<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/siblings-2-300x269.jpg" alt="" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-26535" width="300" height="269" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/siblings-2-300x269.jpg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/siblings-2.jpg 480w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
&nbsp;
&#8220;This girl is an orphan,” the note read.
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The siblings wouldn’t see each other again for 34 years, reuniting half a world away using 23andMe.
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“We matched,” <a href="https://www.oregonlive.com/pacific-northwest-news/index.ssf/2018/09/oregon_adoptees_dna_test_leads.html">Justin told at the Oregonian</a>. “Out of one in a million. Maybe even more.”
&nbsp;
Justin was too young to even know he had a sister, while Renee never forgot that she had a younger brother, she just never thought they would see each other again.
&nbsp;
Take a moment to see the siblings reunite. Make sure you have a tissue handy.
<iframe loading="lazy" width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/YaL9tGeQjQ8" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>

Siblings reunite using 23andMe

There aren’t Mother’s Day cards for moments like this.
<div id="attachment_26197" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-26197" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Doug-Patricia-300x200.png" alt="" class="wp-image-26197 size-medium" width="300" height="200" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Doug-Patricia-300x200.png 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Doug-Patricia.png 512w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />Doug and his biological mother Patricia.</div>
Five 23andMe customers came together this past week to reunite with the biological mother’s they found through 23andMe to celebrate their first Mother’s Day. One even met her biological mother for the very first time at this reunion. But what do you say? 

Each of them — <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XaGUyrlp9ac">Doug</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3Cx89m8JHs">Tracy</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmjhNrrWAH0">Tiffany</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1r0lb0iGcnA">Megan</a>, and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKY03NhIAOI">Amanda</a> were adopted and had loving families who raised them. They each have mothers. But they also yearned to know more about the women who gave birth to them. When they finally found them, they searched for the right words to say.

Sitting with her son Doug Clarke, her arm linked in his, a beaming Patricia Johnson, said she’d never stopped thinking of him in the more than five decades since she put him into adoption. She always had a feeling of emptiness not knowing what had become of her son, so when they finally found each other, his words were the best present she could have ever received.

&#8220;And one of the first things this man said to me was,” she said halting with emotion. “He thanked me for giving him a beautiful life,” said Patricia, who added that making that connection filled her heart.
<iframe loading="lazy" width="560" height="315" align="aligncenter " src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/UJhZGZ4Ts8Q" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen">?</iframe> 
A sense of gratitude permeated much of what each of these customers said as they sat and spoke in person with their biological mothers for what would be their first Mother’s Day celebration, a brunch in New York City.

For Tiffany Cross, finding her biological mother answered so many questions, but beyond that, it added to the important women in her life.

“I have my mom, my stepmom, and mother-in-law, and now I’ve added another mom to my Mother’s Day crew,” Tiffany said.
For the mothers, who spent so many years wondering what had become of the children they’d given up for adoption, seeing them and knowing that they’d had good lives and they’d thrived to become beautiful adults was the most important gift of all.

Josephine Jones spent years wondering what had happened to her daughter Tracy Delgado, who she thought of every day. As a teenage mom, Josephine was told that it would be detrimental for her to keep her daughter, who has cerebral palsy, so she decided to give her up for adoption. Now all those years later, she didn’t know what her daughter would think of her if they ever met again, but she was waiting and hoping she would get in touch.

“I thought maybe when she turned 21 she would try to call, so we kept the same phone number for 30 something years,” Josephine said.

That phone eventually rang.

Her daughter, Tracy expressed some of the same feelings felt by others when she said that finding her biological mother and learning that her mother had never forgotten her and was searching too, healed something inside her.

“I feel so complete like a missing piece of me,” Tracy said. “I feel whole now.”

To all the mothers out there — adoptive moms, birth moms, stepmoms, mothers-in law  — Happy Mother’s Day from 23andMe. 

Check out the stories from 23andMe’s Mother’s Day brunch here.

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				From left to right, Chelsea, her cousin Niki, Chelsea&#8217;s mom Tracy, and Tracy&#8217;s biological mother JosephineTracy, and Josephine
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				Tiffany, center, and her biological mother Terry (on the left) and her adoptive mom, Linda.
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Adoption — Page 2