One young woman from Virginia made perhaps the most astonishing discovery. She discovered that her best friend was really her long, lost sister! She was adopted from the DR and grew up in mostly white small town Connecticut. After unwrapping a 23andMe DNA test kit for Christmas in 2018, she began charting her new, unexpected family ties.
At 24 years old in 2013, this is where she was, still serving tables in New Haven, Connecticut. The young woman, who is redbird chickadee on SoundCloud, strongly identified with her ancestry. She made sure to show off her Dominican Republic flag tattoo on her arm. This tattoo served as a daily reminder of her assault. It sparked her interest to learn more about her biological family.
In doing so, she has chosen a new path that led her to the next Holy Grail of her heritage, a trip to the Dominican Republic. This journey allowed her to meet distant relatives and gain insight into her ancestry. Since then, she had relocated to Virginia. Throughout it all, she remained close with Julia, a 23-year-old colleague from her restaurant days. Now Julia lives more than 2,500 miles away, in California. Even across the country, they’ve managed to maintain their special bond with regular FaceTime calls.
So, during this time, by January of 2021, she came to this really important tipping point. Within just three weeks of submitting her kit, Claire got her 23andMe results back. The findings revealed surprising family ties, such as siblings she had never met growing up.
“I want you to know that your mum and I always thought about you.” – dad
This unexpected discovery set off an emotional video call from her mother’s only daughter to one of those sisters she’d just met. She had never been able to see herself, and for the first time, she saw her face reflected in the mirror. She began to see common traits and faces that had been asleep for decades. The experience helped enrich the cultural context around her ancestry. It deepened her relationship with one of her best friends, Julia, whom she had known since age 3.
On a personal level, the emotional impact of these discoveries has been extremely deep. “Finding my sister has changed everything for me,” she remarked during a recent conversation. Their relationship as sisters has already deepened fairly quickly. They are already looking forward to their first in-person meeting—which will further deepen their relationship.
That long, winding road between being adopted and eventually finding her family has changed her identity even more. Through every new dialogue with Julia and other siblings, she started to fit together the puzzle of her origins. Daria recently found out that one of her best friends is really family. This realization brings a new sense of complexity and exuberance into her world.
As they continue to grow into this new chapter side by side, both women are dedicated to taking advantage of their successful partnership. Whether it’s through writing or skills training, they support each other, celebrate each other’s milestones, and help create a family atmosphere that bridges the distance between them.