My Birth Father Is Either One of Two Twins… or Their Dad

What if the first clue to your DNA surprise was hidden in your parents’ wedding video — and years later, the search pointed to identical twins?

Episode Overview

In this episode of the Family Twist podcast, Corey and Kendall talk with Emily, a fellow New England podcaster who uncovered her DNA surprise in an unforgettable way. As a child, she noticed she was in her parents’ wedding video, and that observation launched decades of questions about her identity.

Emily’s journey stretched from childhood curiosity to a paternity test at Dunkin Donuts, to the unique complication of identical twins in DNA testing, and the heartbreak of a mother who could not talk about the past. Along the way, she faced silence, secrecy, and the reality that reunion is rarely the fantasy we imagine.

This is a story of identity, resilience, and what happens when nature and nurture collide in unexpected ways.

My Birth Father Is Either One of Two Twins… or Their Dad

What You’ll Learn

• How a wedding video sparked Emily’s search for her biological father
• Why secrecy and shame around conception left lasting scars
• How identical twins complicate DNA test results in family discovery
• Why a parent’s lack of curiosity can be as painful as rejection
• How adoptees and NPEs balance gratitude for their raising families with the right to know their origins

Episode Chapters

00:00 – Welcome and introduction to Emily

01:00 – Discovering she was in her parents’ wedding video

02:00 – Learning she was adopted by her raising father

03:00 – Secrecy and shame around her conception

04:00 – Tracking down her first possible father

05:00 – Paternity test at Dunkin Donuts

06:00 – DNA testing with 23andMe, Ancestry, and GEDmatch

08:00 – The identical twins twist

10:00 – Meeting her biological father for the first time

12:00 – Family synchronicities and high school connections

14:00 – Building a relationship with her biological father and siblings

16:00 – Navigating her mother’s silence

18:00 – The weight of “you should be grateful” in adoptee experiences

20:00 – Kendall’s parallels in adoption reunion

24:00 – Managing reunion expectations versus reality

26:00 – Finding connection through music

28:00 – Closing reflections and resources

Resources and Mentions

• New England Podcasters Group: Join here
• Right to Know: righttoknow.us
• NPE Friends Fellowship: npefellowship.org
• Donor Sibling Registry: donorsiblingregistry.com

If Emily’s DNA surprise story resonated with you, share this episode with someone navigating adoption, donor conception, or an NPE discovery. Subscribe to Family Twist on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen. Leaving a review helps more people discover stories of adoption reunions, family secrets, and DNA testing.

Family Twist is a podcast about DNA surprises, NPE experiences, adoption journeys, and donor conception stories. Hosted by Corey and Kendall Stulce, the show features real conversations about identity, family, and belonging. In this episode, Emily shares how she uncovered her DNA surprise through a wedding video, the unique challenge of identical twin DNA results, and th

Transcript

Wedding video, DNA surprise, and identical twins twist (plus Kendall’s parallel story)

Corey 0:00

Welcome back. On this episode of Family Twist, we're joined by Emily, a fellow New England podcaster whose DNA surprise began with a wedding video and a simple question: Why am I in my parents' wedding? That moment launched decades of searching from a Dunkin' Donuts paternity test to a shocking identical twin't twist. Emily shares the weight of family shame, the silence of a mother who cannot talk, and the reality that reunion is rarely the fairy tale we imagine. Along the way, Kendall opens up about his own experience, what it felt like when his adoptive family support clashed with relatives who wanted him to stop searching, and how reunion with his birth father brought both joy and frustration. Together, these stories highlight the right to know your origins, the pain of parents who aren't quite curious enough, and the ways that humor, music, and community help us bridge the silence. Welcome, Emily, to the Family Twist Podcast.

Emily 0:57

Thank you. Thanks for having me.

Corey 1:00

Well, we're excited to have you, not just because we're interested in your story, but we're all members of the New England Podcasters Group, which is an awesome organization, been around for what a little over a year now. And anyone out there who has a podcast and you live in New England, I encourage you to check them out or check us out, and I'll put links in the show notes. But how did you hear about the group, Emily?

Emily 1:24

I we keep trying to figure it out. It was somehow Amy, of course, and she is like the pro-teerleader for that group, but I gotta say, I don't usually do groups, like I'm not a group person, and I love New England Podcasters group. So there is some sort of special magic.

Corey 1:40

Absolutely, yeah, it's cool. I mean, so welcoming, so helpful. And I think that might be why we aren't involved with a lot of groups, because it's not salesy, you know, it's very just like uh community collaborative. Let's celebrate each other, let's help each other, you know, all the good stuff.

Emily 1:57

Yeah, agreed.

Corey 2:00

So even though we were part of the group, we had no idea that you've got a DNA surprise. How did you discover this?

Emily 2:08

Okay, so how did I discover the surprise? Well, I grew up not knowing that my dad was not my dad, the person that my mother married. And you have to forgive me because I know that some of your guests use the right terms, and I like don't know any of them. So despite having done like a lot of research, I still don't know all these terms.

Corey 2:29

That's okay. Yeah, well, I don't even know if we say the right terms. And there's new terms added every day.

Emily 2:35

It's funny because as a little girl, like as a three-year-old, I remember my mom dating my dad, and I remember calling him David, but I don't remember like that that was weird at all. You know, I mean, you just don't. You're a little, little kid. So I didn't know for a long time. And one day I used to watch like my parents' wedding video over and over and over again because I just was obsessed with it. I was watching it with my friend, and she's like, Why are you in your parents' wedding? And I was like, I don't know. Aren't all kids in their parents' weddings? I'll ask my mom. So I asked my mom and she said, Well, your dad actually didn't just choose me, he chose you and he adopted you. And so she's like, Here's your birth certificate. You know, we changed your name over from my maiden name to his name, and that's that. So I asked, kind of like, well, if he's not my real dad, like who is my real dad? Like, what is the story here? And basically the way it was told to me, it was it was a lot of shame. My parents were like very, they came from very religious background. There was a lot of shame in whatever this big, deep, dark secret was. And the way it was posed to me is that my mom had an interaction with somebody she was working with at the time, and bada bing, bada boom, then I'm in the world. So that was kind of it. And when I that was when I was like eight or nine years old. And so by the time I was 11, like I just could not stop thinking about this. And I'd be like looking for him in like everybody's face, which that actually like never stopped. You know, I'd be like, who is he? Do I know him? And so when I was 11, I started like really trying to figure out like I'm gonna ask for more questions, I'm gonna figure out who this person is. She gave me a name and I held on to that name for from 11 to 21. And then I was like, okay, I'm finding this person. So I can pause or I can just keep on going down that road if you want.

Corey 4:20

Let's keep on going.

Deep dive into DNA sleuthing with 23andMe, Ancestry, and a cousin in New Zealand

Emily 4:21

Okay. So I'm 21 years old, and I start Googling this guy's name. It's a common name. And if I'm allowed to use names, I'll use it. It was Norm Scott. So it's like kind of a common name. So I'm looking and looking, and I finally find like a couple that I'm like, okay, this is the right age range, the right area in Maine. He would have lived around my mother at the same time. So I narrowed down to one person. I find his family on Facebook, like his two daughters, contact them, and they did not appreciate me contacting them. The circumstances under which I was supposedly conceived were like really bad. So their mother was dying of breast cancer, and their father and my mother worked together. So they were not like very inspired to meet me, but they also knew that I would come looking for their dad, and they connected me to him. We got together, thanks to my grandmother, like bringing me to meet him, and we met at a Dunkin' Donuts in Lisbon Falls. Then we went to go take a paternity test. After that first conversation with him, I was like, oh, 100%. Like he is definitely the one. Like, no question. And he knew it. Like he's like, Yes, I always knew you'd come looking for me. So we take this paternity test, and don't you know it comes back 0.0000001% chance that he is the father? And I'm like, well, that 0.0001%, maybe he is. And they're like, that's not how it works, honey. So I'm back to the drawing board at that point. And you know, I always still wondered, and I asked my mom, it's not him, so we need to fork over some names here. And she she said, basically, she doesn't remember, she doesn't know, but she used this phrase of, I don't even remember the name of the friend that I went to the party with. Like she used that, and I never let that go. So fast forward to my 30s, I think I'm like 31, 32 at this point. My husband got me a 23 in me for Christmas. The goal of it was to kind of figure out, like, we all sort of thought I had like this very like exotic gene or something. I was like, ooh, I'm definitely gonna be something exciting because I don't look like anybody else in my family. So he got me this 23andMe, and I am very unsurprisingly highly French, Canadian, English, and and Irish, like everybody else in the world. And not everybody else in the world, sorry, everybody else in that area. So I take this 23andMe, and I didn't have any really close connections at all. Pretty much all of my connections on there were fourth cousins or third cousins, which was pretty frustrating. A fourth cousin did reach out to me. She lives in New Zealand, and we figured out she and I were connected on my mother's side, and she's really savvy in DNA. So she's like, I'm gonna help you. She said, first thing you need to do, you need to get an ancestry, you need to get Jed match, and then like I must have submitted it to like three other places. So I'm like $700 with like DNA swabs alone.

unknown 7:23

Wow.

The identical twins reveal: three possible fathers and a 50% DNA match

Emily 7:23

And then she said, you really need to get somebody on your mother's side because at the time, 23 and me and Ancestry, they didn't parse through mother-father unless you had a definite match. So she said, I need to get somebody on my mother's side close if I could to take a test. So I got my aunt to take a test, and then it starts like being able to see who's on my mother's, who's on my father's. So I took everyone on my father's side that I possibly could, and I would either look at them on 23andMe or Ancestry and build their tree backwards. And Philippa, that's her name in New Zealand. She helped with this because there was a lot of it. Like when you get to cousins, you're starting to look at like all of these different roads and paths you could take, and it could lead to like seven different people. So she was really good at being like, you can eliminate that one because the last name won't get you where you want to go. So that took a long time. Like my husband bought me the test in December, and I worked on that straight on through until March. I was just like at my computer every single day. I had a retail shop at the time. So when no customers were in the store, I was just like building trees. Like I was dreaming in family trees, and there were a lot of suspects, if you will. So I would kind of get somebody, look at them on Facebook, and be like, oh dear God, I hope that's it, or like, I hope that's not it. Like, you know, you would just have so many questions at that time. So finally, it was in March that we got a real breakthrough. There was a second cousin that came through on my dad's side on Ancestry, built his tree back, found a very unique last name, and then that last name took us to three options. The three options were an older gentleman who would have been probably 30 years older than my mother at the time, and then two identical twins, Steven and Stuart. Oh, okay. Yes. So after, well, I didn't rule out the father, but I did reach out to their sister, and their sister was like, You're crazy. I don't know what you're talking about, but I'll ask them. So she asks her brothers. Both of them are like, No, we have no recollection of this. Like, I don't know what you're talking about. Who is this person, right? Like, is she just coming for our money? Yeah. So eventually I convinced their sister to also take a DNA test with me. And she, I purchased one for her. It sat on her counter for like six months and she never took it. And the conversation with me and Steven kept on going, kind of like, would you consider taking one as well? You know, I really like think there might be something to this. So he's like, it must be my my brother, because it's not me. The the problem with identical twins is their DNA is also identical, but I knew at least if I could get him to take a test, then I would be able to say, Well, it's at least one of the two of them. Or it's their father. So I got him to take a test, and lo and behold, it said 50% match. The, you know, that is the paternal father. So again, the problem is that like we weren't still sure if it was him or his brother, but we met in December of 2018. That was a year later. I was the most nervous I have ever been in my life. He's an airline pilot. So he did an overnight in the town near me, and we met at a hotel bar. It was amazing. I remember the day after it was like the first time that my feet ever felt like they have hit the ground, connected to my head. Everything always had been very disconnected for me. And I would look in the mirror and be like, I don't see myself. Like it was just all very weird. And that was the first day I really started to like see all these pieces of me like kind of come together. So we still didn't a hundred percent know, but he was best friends with somebody my mother was friends with, also. And I said, Why don't you just like think, you know, get your memory juices going or whatever, think back to this neighborhood because this is where she lived, and I know she would be going to like parties and stuff in that area, and it all kind of came flooding back to him.

Corey 11:38

So wow.

Emily 11:39

Yeah, so I'll pause there.

Corey 11:41

That's a lot to unpack. But let's go back. I have a couple of questions. Uh so the gentleman that you first thought might be your father, does that mean that he does have a child out there somewhere?

Emily 11:55

No, but he did have an affair with my mother.

Corey 11:58

Gotcha.

Emily 11:59

And actually, I do believe that I think he had a vasectomy, so I think the chances would have been really, really low anyway. So the odds would have been low anyway, but he still didn't put it past him.

Corey 12:13

Gotcha. All right. I wasn't expecting the identical twin thing to pop up. So that's interesting. Okay, I I think we're ready just to hear more of her.

Emily 12:22

Okay, so I'll share this because it gets a little weirder in synchronicities. So him, okay, so I told my nana, because she's like been my avid supporter in finding this out. I did bring it up to my mother, and she's like, you know, I don't know them. I knew them in high school. I went to high school with them, is what she said, but I don't know them. So my nana, when I said their name, she's like, Oh my gosh. Okay, so his birthday is November 19th, 1963. My mother's birthday is November 20th, 1963. They were born in yeah, they were born in the same town in the same hospital, and my nana was having my mother next to, like, you know how it the hospital rooms are separated by like a curtain. They're in the recovery rooms after having their babies next to each other on those days. What I was doing. So, yeah, so it's a little crazy. They did go to high school together, it turns out. All of them were in the exact same class. They all know my aunts, their dad had a grocery store, my grandfather had a little general store, so they were like the dueling family store, which is so funny. Theirs was like a health food store, ours was like the opposite of a health food store. And yeah, so the birthday thing, and then I'm trying to think of what other kind of oh, his wife was really uncomfortable with this whole situation. Like, I think she was the one initially being like, don't get together with this girl, you know, what is happening here? Like, I don't want to be thinking about your past and who you've been with and who you don't even remember that you've been with, you know. So I think it was really, really hard on her. And I do understand. I try to put myself in her shoes a lot, actually. Like, if that were to happen to me, how I would receive it. Her name is also Emily, which was a little funny. So I made a promise to my mother that I would never bring it up with her again because she's so highly uncomfortable talking about it and is such an area of shame for her, which I think has been that's been really hard for me. Steven is fantastic. I get along really, really well with him. I have a lot of similarities with him. I've met one of his children, he has two, and him and I are like both really neurotically the same in lots of different ways. Like when we got together, I was like, oh my gosh, me too. We do the same gestures. Like that, that's a little weird. That's where you really get to see the nature nurture come through. And I enjoyed that experience. I felt like the the nature piece of me was like really, really satisfied. Like, okay, this explains so much of why I've never really exactly felt like the perfect fit anywhere that I was. And he's not like the best at being like responsive. So like sometimes I'll like reach out and it'll be like weeks before he gets back to me. He doesn't remember my birthday. So there are still things where it's just it's sad. Like you lost a lot of time with somebody that you could have had a great relationship with. And I'm not really great friends with my dad that my mom married. And I'm also not like best friends with my mom. I mean, we're good friends, but not like best friends. So I just feel like that part of me always kind of got lost. And I feel one thing I want to say is I had a very fairy tale, happy ending in my head of like how this was all gonna go, especially when I met him. I was like, this is amazing. Like we just hit it off. Everybody in the family I love, you know. But it's just not that. Like, it's really hard to merge, you know. I've spent 40 years of my life almost like building it a certain way, and it's hard to be like, well, now we do Christmas with this random family that nobody else has any access to. So my relationship with him is really private and secret, and there's not a lot of people in my family that know about it.

Corey 16:18

Well, I mean, we can definitely relate to that because you know, we know of a situation close to us that very similar, and I just can't imagine like how it feels for you, how it feels for your mother. Does it drive you crazy that you can't talk about it with her?

Emily 16:37

Yes, but I'm an extremely understanding person. I what I don't understand as a woman is how you kind of don't remember something like that. Although I do understand that all kinds of substances and situations can be involved. So I do understand. I think it's sort of unfair when it's somebody else's life that is also impacted and it is so definitive of like who they are and who they're becoming. In my heart, I'm always so protective of my mother that I'm just like, I, you know, I can't be mad at her at the end of the day because I don't believe that she really has a choice to be any other way.

Corey 17:14

So sure, sure. But at the same time, I mean, it this is your right to know the truth. Do you think that she is upset with you for going as far as you did and actually making the discovery?

Emily 17:29

I think that they always really wanted me to bel to go along with that my adopted dad was my dad. And like, you, you know, you should be grateful. He chose you, he chose both of us. Like, this is such a gift. I really struggle to identify with him and his family. Like, I am as far from the polar opposite as you can get. And so I think that this just added to that barrier. Like, and I think that frustrated her. My mom is very close to him, like super, super close to him. And so I think that's always just been like a thing between us, you know. So I think she is, I think it's more like something like she's like, I it's too painful for her to talk about, or just too something for her to talk about. I don't even know what's blocking it, but she can't even really access it.

Corey 18:22

Well, I know all the adoptees listening cringed a couple of moments ago when you said that she should be grateful because that's one of like the triggering things that really gets people going. It's like you know, I mean, uh we understand there's a lot of education to happen, and it's hard for people to like put themselves into somebody else's head. Yeah you know, but those kinds of insensitivities, you know.

Emily 18:45

I don't think she realizes because she hasn't had to go through this, and I I would I don't think you really can understand what it's like to not be able to put together your identity until you can't. And it is the most frustrating thing, and I don't even it's not like that defines me, but it when I would especially when you're young, it does. And you're just trying to figure out those pieces and like who am I and why am I like this and answer all of those big life questions. And so when no one's like kind of being responsive to that, it can be really, really hard and frustrating.

Corey 19:22

So yeah, I knew before my parents died, my adoptive parents both died really young. And I knew though that they were both supportive of my search, yeah. Being an angsty teenager when my mother had passed, and then my father passed, my mother's adopted mother's sister. I told her, I'm gonna continue to try to find biological family. She was the one that was offended. She was like, How dare you? And I said, Wait, wait, wait. I know that you know that mom and dad were cool with it, so you need to dial it back. A notch. And till the day she died before I found my family, she said, you know, don't disrespect them. And I was like, Aunt Pat, you don't get to make that judgment for me.

Emily 20:13

Yeah.

Corey 20:14

You know your family. You know which both sides. And it's not fair when I know that I had my parents' support to go on this journey. I'm going on it. You know, and I granted I was beating my head against a wall back then. You know what I mean? I was probably just saying that to spite her at that point. But it was hard for me to show people grace when I was really going through it. I wish I hadn't been as demonstrative with her as I was, but that was just kind of her and my dynamic. And she did she did settle down a bit, but I know in her heart she felt like I was disrespecting my adoptive family. And I wasn't.

Emily 20:55

Yeah. That's how I think my mom took it too. Yeah.

Corey 20:59

You can have positive memories, but still want to find the other side of the equation.

Emily 21:04

Yeah. And knowing that, you know, I might not actually get a good answer on the other side of this equation. And I had that recognition many, many times as I was looking on Ancestry. And like I'd look somebody up on Facebook and be like, okay, this might not be the situation I thought it was going to be. And I still think it's as great as it could have turned out for me. I still don't think it's what I dreamed of. You know, I think a lot of people are really wanting that relationship with one of their parents. And it can look all different ways for all of us. And I just think I really so craved that that like when it didn't happen the way I thought it was going to happen, I was like, oh, another parent I don't really have a perfect relationship with. Right now I have three, and none of them are exactly what I would want them to be.

Corey 21:53

Absolutely. Yeah. It's a tough position to be in for sure. Kendall and I were having a conversation over the weekend. We're working on fleshing out his story for a possible book or something along those lines. And I was asking him about, you know, when I got him the DNA test that we made the discovery from, because it had at that point it had been, you know, a long time where he would been looking, and I think at that point, had pretty much given up. So I'm curious after that first, you know, I'm not actually your dad situation, Emily. Like, why did you wait so long after that to continue the journey?

Emily 22:30

You know, probably because I couldn't afford to go on to 23 and me, like 20. I was not very good with money. So that's probably my answer. And I can't remember how much that first kit cost when my husband got it for me. I think it was like $200. But that was kind of when, you know, and also I had the support of my spouse at that time, saying, like, I want to help you now find this person. And like, this is really important and meaningful to you. So, like, let me give you that gift so that you can take that next step. Because without that, I don't know if I ever would have invested in it for myself, you know, or I would have waited a much longer time and I would have kept looking at people's faces and being like, Oh, maybe that's it, maybe, which it gets you nowhere. Because especially when you have brown hair and brown eyes, you look like everyone up in in Maine.

Corey 23:21

Has your husband been able to start forming a relationship with your father?

Emily 23:25

Yeah, actually, Steven really loves my husband. He thinks he's fantastic. We don't my husband and I have a a hard time like traveling together just with our work schedules. So every time, for example, he would invite me to Florida, like I would want to go with my husband, but I would be like, Well, I'm too scared to go by myself. So we just wouldn't go. But we did go up and visit them in Maine, and everybody was a big fan, and we're like kind of like the novelty when we go see everybody, you know. So, yes, they all very much love him, and he really likes their whole side a lot. Again, it's hard because now I'm like, okay, I want you to form a bond with this family and this family, and we have your family. Like, let's form all the bonds with all the people. And he's very introverted, so I think that's kind of like he wants to go deep with people, right? And not like as wide. So I prefer to have deeper relationships as well.

Corey 24:18

Gotcha. Yeah, I pretty much just like bulldoze my ways of me. You know, it's like that has worked in our situation. In fact, I feel like when I first met my biological dad, I feel like Corey helped facilitate some of those conversations because I'm one of those people, and I love my dad, don't get me wrong, but he is not inquisitive at all about anything. And I'm the kind of person like it needs to be back and forth, right? Like, I want to ask you about your life, and I need you to ask me about mine. And he wouldn't. It would piss me off. And I'd be like, forget it, Corey. I'm not gonna talk. And Corey would help. Yeah, he's a journalist. You know, he would, he'd almost like, hey, you both are sitting down. Why don't we talk about that? Or he'd facilitate the conversation. And we needed that because to your point, I didn't realize how delusional I am about how all these things would go. I had just built this scenario where I'm the best thing since sliced bread, and you just found me, and you should realize how fantastic I am. And that's not the way it happened. I mean, people were receptive, but not at the level that I thought they should be. I was 47 when I made this discovery. I had developed this whole backstory, you know, in my mind about everything, and nothing that I thought came true. So be kind of fantasies.

Reunion vs reality: parents who are not curious enough and the ache of three imperfect parent relationships

Emily 25:51

I really want to highlight that lack of inquisitiveness, and that is really frustrating. I mean, that is actually a huge letdown in any parental relationship, but especially this one, because you do think to yourself, like, oh my gosh, they're gonna want to know everything. Like they're gonna want to know why I do this gesture and why I make this noise. And it's it's it's also important to realize it's not the same because for us, it was a piece of who we are, and for them, it's sort of like an addition to who they are, right? Like for us, it's a missing piece, for them, it's an addition. And so my biological father is the same way, he's not inquisitive, and uh so I bring like lists of questions because I'm like, I have 20 topics, he doesn't reciprocate, and that is something I've just learned.

Corey 26:37

Yeah, we do. It's funny that you say that because when I met my dad, what I found him doing sometimes was like trying to compare me to my local brother and sister, like his other two kids. And I was like, Yeah, not like either of them, you know what I mean? That's kind of as far as his inquisitiveness went. And I was like, Well, I could tell you more, but I'm just not going to. In the den. All three of fun. You know what I mean? Yeah. Well, and it's it's you know, Kendall's dad reminds me a lot of my dad too, a lot of the similar personality, you know. So that was nice for me too, because you know, my dad died when I was 17. So just having that that sort of shared moment is kind of like, you know, a flashback, you know, to to that.

Emily 27:43

Yeah, I love that. And now you are all still friends with their family where near where you live, yes? It's complicated.

Corey 27:53

In some instances, it's complicated, but yeah. I mean, we're uh we're still in relation with that whole side of the family, and then not as much on Kendall's birth mother's side. But you know, we have his sister who is working in Connecticut right now, and so you know, that's it's great. We got to spend a long weekend with Stephanie and two of our friends that have become really good friends of ours last month, and it was just those moments are so magical and so memorable. It's like they remind you like why we did this in the first place and why it's worth the frustration and the ongoing drama and all of that.

Emily 28:33

Yeah, yeah.

Corey 28:36

So speaking of mute, Emily, I don't know if you've been listening to the most recent episodes because we just started this not too long ago, but the question that we've been asking all guests on Family Twist is that when you were kind of going through the process, either searching for family or finding dead ends, or finally discovering your dad, is there a musical artist that you lean on in times of frustration or trauma?

Emily 29:04

That's funny. Probably more in my my angsty twenties when it was that's probably when I used music for leaning on, but I I will share a musical story. When I was going to meet him at that hotel bar restaurant, I had Kat Stevens the first cut is the deepest playing, and I remember it like yesterday. Like I even remember like my hands on the steering wheel, like trying to calm myself down, you know, doing like the back and forth and doing it to the beat of Kat Stevens. And it I just I've always loved that song. So there we go. That's kind of relative to any any trauma.

Corey 29:42

Yeah, I'm sure that's a song that a lot of people relate to for a lot of reasons, you know. That's definitely a good one. Awesome. Well, Emily, thank you so much for being open to share your story. I think kind of I feel like we know you a little bit better now, which is great because we love the growing community of the New England Podcasters group. And so it's always wonderful to make a new friend. We can't wait to meet you in person.

Emily 30:05

Thank you so much for having me and letting me share. And you will remain in my ears until the next time we meet in person.

Corey 30:13

Sounds good. Thank you. Emily's story, alongside Kendall's, reminds us why Family Twist exists. DNA surprises aren't just about test results, they're about identity, belonging, and navigating silence. Emily faced the unique complication of identical twins and the heartbreak of a mother who shut down the conversation. Kendall shared his own version of that gap when reunion didn't match the fantasy he'd built over 47 years, and how even small moments, like soon Carol King's tapestry with his dad, created the connection he longed for. If these stories resonate with you, please share this episode with a friend who might need it. You'll find links to resources and support groups in the show notes. And please subscribe, rate, and review Family Twist wherever you listen, because family secrets are the ultimate pop twist, and telling them helps us all feel less alone. The Family Twist podcast is presented by Sabwa Fair Marketing Communications and produced by Habakkaui Cabbage LLC.