What was supposed to be a birthday gift ended up casting doubt on a story she had believed for nearly 20 years. And the most baffling thing is that, until then, she had never had any reason to distrust her family.
A 24-year-old woman shared on Reddit that her parents had told her she was adopted when she was just 5 years old. They had always treated her like a daughter, paid for her college education, and were even helping her pay for her master’s degree.
Everything changed when her boyfriend gave her an Ancestry DNA test for her birthday. They both wanted to learn about their roots, and she hoped she might one day find her biological family. However, when she received the results, she was in for a surprise she had never imagined.
The test revealed genetic matches with both pairs of grandparents and several cousins from the family that had raised her. In other words, the people she had always believed were her adoptive relatives also appeared as her biological relatives.
Confused, she spoke with her 25-year-old older brother, who had also been adopted, but he couldn’t explain it either. Her parents had never taken these tests because, they said, they didn’t need a test to know who they were.
The young woman decided to make an appointment with her therapist before talking to her parents. Although the results don’t confirm that they are her biological parents, they did raise a question she now needs to resolve: why doesn’t the story of her adoption match what her DNA reveals?
