Father and Daughter reunited on The Today Show thanks to MyHeritage DNA

41 year-old Sarah de Mars never knew the identity of her biological parents that is until very recently after a DNA test changed everything watch was about yeah just just over a month old when I was adopted and yeah we lived in Fort with Indiana when I was about seven eight years old we moved to Chicago and then I spent the rest of my teenage years there and then I went to Marquette University in Milwaukee I have the one handwritten note from my foster family to my adoptive family just sort of a really sweet lovely note describing me as a really happy baby and a good eater and a good sleeper my mother was they described her as tall and pretty and she had dark hair and dark eyes they described her as a very good student she was 17 and she described the father as wild and reckless I actually never looked for the man in the notes I always looked for my mother it's an empty feeling for sure I wonder if she thinks about me on my birthday I wonder if she ever thinks about me as a mother I can't imagine not I married a man that has very deep roots their family fabric is woven very tightly so I did always sort of feel like a bit of an outsider about a year or so ago my son came home from school they had a Grandparents Day and he came home in tears because he didn't have a grandpa that's actually the reason we got the DNA test if you've taken a DNA test you're in their system so that's another email you often get is they've another person has taken a DNA test some distant relatives some you know it was the Sunday night I was lying in bed and Bing I have an email from my heritage just sort of scroll down to this larger box where it it had a picture of a man and my husband said it says they found your father Wow serra de maras is with us now she lives in the Netherlands with her husband and her two sons but she has flown over to join us today for a special reunion Sara welcome how you doing yeah yeah like pretty much your whole life you knew that you were adopted yeah we're that close with your adoptive family no and always felt like you needed to find this missing piece yeah for sure yeah so when you when that pops up in your ancestry what was it what was the website my heritage chuckle and it pops up in my heritage comm your email box yeah you're thinking this is another like zero zero point zero zero two relative they found some seventh cousin yeah you got a lot of those and what did you see instead I actually I saw water which because we're registered in the Netherlands it email is come in Dutch and my Dutch is pretty good but still when you read I think if it came in English I don't think I would be able to understand what it said you know it was huge it what it said bots are like Vader like Darth Vader yeah it all connects yeah so you go to your husband and you're like does it say what says I literally fell out of that and hit my head on the wall I'm running down the stairs with my computer in my pyjamas and said cos he speaks Dutch fluently and I said am I crazy or does it say father and he said no it's his father and we both were oh yeah now you know now it's like okay it wasn't your mom but it was your dad yeah it the wild and crazy one according to what you had read well according to what I had read but yeah they were then we later find out maybe something different yeah so you what's the first thing you do who do you email first I didn't hesitate I emailed them in the system you can message the people in the system but you're the way that it's all set up is like my husband and I he bought the kids so his email address is registered with the kids or not his email address at his profile so I messaged what turned out to be his wife and just said tried to be succinct and said you know the system has Lee has identified your husband as my father and I would very much like to connect and this is all of my contact please let me know when we can speak further was it an interminable wait - yeah it was a high it was awful and they didn't reply and they didn't reply for days and so of course then I went psychotic I'm I of course did the you know the the the detective in me when email you know looking for email addresses and googling and facebooking and instagramming and anything I could try to find and I did find him on Facebook but yeah my husband is isn't an older person but my dad's an older person am i and he's not on Facebook all the time but he has an account so I sent a message on facebook also and no response until there was so he did finally returned the message and they spoke but they have never seen each other in person after this break Sarah's gonna meet her birth father in person for the first time adoption at birth she has never known the identity of her birth parents but recently Sarah found her birth father after taking a DNA test and they're about to meet in person for the first time 41 years since Sarah was born so I'm I can't guarantee I'll be steady or not something unpredictable won't happen I I'm nervous for you but I'm also super excited I was just telling don't we have our love blanket around her right now love blanket around you and without further ado Arlen Metzger come on out [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] thank you for doing this love have a seat that was exciting all right so can we just get to you Arlen how you feeling little nervous yeah okay you had no idea you had a daughter another daughter no ma'am I did not know I I didn't I didn't have any idea at all you're living in Texas yes ma'am okay and and so what was it who was the first person who how did you find out my sister contacted us and said that some woman is saying that she's related to us and she said she said she said Ireland is a scam and so yeah and I said and we had heard that we had a half-sister somewhere so I said hey it's probably our half-sister and and she goes no she's in her 40s so it couldn't be our sister because we're in our 60s so it couldn't be our sister and then my wife gets this email from Sarah and and she starts saying that she's related to us and and the next thing I know we talked we ended up talking on the phone or through emails and and I'm so I called my sister and I said no she is our relative she is as a matter of fact I think I'm her dad as it turns out you had some fun in the mid-1970s yes I was between the Navy and the army had gotten out of the Navy and at that time I've said [Applause] but you did not know so your birth mom never told you or my family nobody told you that description of him is not him not wild and crazy well no no but it said it discrete five five seven five seven and it described the youngest of three children and other other things that don't match little little details that don't match at all Wow so you thought it was some other guy I think so but you too I love it because some of these reunions can be tough and you immediately told her to call you dad yeah honey give me a favor just call me Dad we talked oh this is very weird cuz we talk all the time right you talk and you apparently look a lot like your mom she does man you look like him yeah yeah you can look alike but the split screen of you and his mom is pretty striking yeah I have to say so Arlen you've been so good about welcoming welcoming her into the family and you could have said I didn't want to want to do with this but this all started with an idea after your son Xander was missing having a grandpa yeah and so you now have two additional grandchildren it gives us 12 Xander and max would you like to meet them I love you let's meet your grandchildren you're too [Applause] they're nervous is that exciting to meet grandpa yeah yeah they were really angry yesterday they couldn't meet you immediately getting off the plane I hope you guys have a wonderful life together thank you so much for sharing this beautiful moment with [Applause] I'll be right back

Channel: MyHeritage

Views: 948,132

Rating: 4.7622242 out of 5

Keywords: today show, reunion, the today show, father's day, family history, dna, dna test, myheritage, myheritage dna, my heritage

Id: nkUt3XupQdU

Length: 10min 35sec (635 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 15 2018