Twin Sisters Separated at Birth Reunite on 'GMA'

such a wonderful audience winter this morning thank you guys for joining us six more for this next story because we do have how people know that you're here and you're not skipping to work or anything like that we do have an incredible story my goal what if one day you woke up and found out you had a twin two ten-year-old girls got the surprise of a lifetime when they discovered they had a twin sister living across the country Audrey and Gracie were separated at birth now they are about to meet in person for the first time what do you say we take a look at the story first all right it's a story of two families miles apart with the same dream to adopt a new baby Jennifer and Thomas during of Wisconsin already the parents of three boys just felt like we weren't complete really would love to have a daughter and finally decided to go through adoption meanwhile in Washington State Nicole reigns Barry and her husband Scott also hoping to expand their family I've always thought about adoption after we had our surprise third child we decided to have a fourth and adoption seems like a great way to add to our family both families looking abroad for their future child even open to taking a child with special needs their search leading the both to China in July 2007 the Raines berries uniting with their daughter Gracie who has a heart condition it was pretty overwhelming to find out that yeah she was really sick the during's meeting their daughter Audrey 15 months old in August of 2007 who also coincidentally has a heart condition you know she was small and we knew she was very frail and they told us actually at 15 months she didn't walk yet the girl's arriving in the u.s. with their new families Gracie Raines berry undergoing two heart surgeries and Audrey during one last month jennifer becomes curious about daughter Audrey's past with the help of a Chinese researcher she discovers this it shows Audrey on her Chinese foster mother's knee with another baby who looks just like her it was unbelievable I'm like how I mean this is stuff you read about and how could it really be that there are two of them as soon as I had that picture I was desperate to find out who that other child was Jennifer with the help of Facebook eventually finds Nichole rains berry and little Gracie it's it's the craziest thing in the whole world to look at your your child exactly I mean everything was the same the same hair the same glasses the same outfits and that was that was the moment I knew that they were they were the same it was so crazy to be looking at what looks like Gracie but knowing that it wasn't crazy yeah it's just surreal I mean it's hard to process that information now the twin girls coming face-to-face for the first time I don't know how you are where you're watching this but the excitement here in the tension but before we get to the big reveal we're gonna welcome half of the twins Audrey Doreen here with her parents Jennifer and Tom please welcome them [Applause] hey Jennifer this is all because of you you wanted to give your daughter a special Christmas gift tell us about that I was essentially looking for a little bit of history for her for Christmas I found a finding and which is essentially a lost and found for Chinese children we were able to locate that and then from there we were able to find a an unseen picture that that was given to us and from there that's when we determined that there were two when I opened the picture two kids to Audrey's and an Audrey for you did you know you were getting the sister for Christmas no I know Tom you have the Abril ders brothers yes I do and they're all very protective yeah how do you think Audrey felt when she found out she had a sister oh I think every girl wants to have a sister so she was happy but I think the initial thing made her nervous the whole family more of a overwhelmed is the word she likes to use for it so it took her basically a day to start trying to talk about it more yeah Audrey you ready yeah you want to do this and stand right here okay you ready I'm gonna back away I don't wanna get into this moment all right Gracie come on out and meet your sister [Applause] I dream Gracie what we're so happy I don't also words this is overwhelming for me because I'm a father of twin girls yeah well here though it how you two feeling right now your first impressions of seeing your sister and how did you feel when you were you were contacted and that had to be something for the family to digest and and determine how to move forward how did you go about it oh yeah it was it was shocking to say the least you know you've been a family for over nine years and to all of a sudden find out that there's this missing piece of her life that is so incredible it was yeah just crazy we've been talking about these adorable twins but also for you mom and dad's family we said you had three brothers three older brothers how'd it feel to have your sister down like it felt like there was something missing so it was like it's complete it's complete and you all have been so so wonderful and sharing this and also with working with dr. Nancy Siegel she works with twin studies psychology and has been really working with with both families because this is a lot this is an adjustment and you were okay with them coming on TV and doing it like this we want to make everybody sure that that was okay but just tell us how this changes the dynamics of both these families well this is a very important meeting the twin relationship the twin bond is a very strong one and so I think it was very important that these girls meet at this particular point in time when they have their whole lives ahead of them and what this does is it really revises family relationships when you think about it Nicole is Gracie's mom but what is she to Audrey and Jennifer is Audrey's mom and what is she to the other girl so what are the brothers and sisters mean to each other from the different families we don't have labels for these relationships but I think that as the family's progressed we will learn how they deal with one another and they will be better able to help other families in these situations and this is a bit a day full of surprises and also you also did a DNA test and and what did we find out from the DNA test we found from the DNA test that these girls are identical twins with a hundred percent certainty [Applause] they're not do something's wrong this side because you all have been able to FaceTime you're not meeting its matching already did that just happen or did you all get together and FaceTime and it surprises so we got a little something for you if I can find him we want you're the first chance to as sisters with your families and we want you both to have you know you both have a love for music so while you're here in New York City we got a little something for you're gonna sing you to the Broadway musical School of Rock at the Winter Garden Theatre if you do that you you're hungry so you need a little food so Planet Hollywood is going to feed everybody the families are gonna go there plenty Hollywood's gonna take care of that about how you guys live far apart and you want to make sure that they can spend time together and I know there's been a go fund to kind of you know help a travel and such is that true okay okay well we thought we'd help out without two didn't we cuz our friends at Expedia comm they gave us some tickets so that you two can see each other [Applause] I tell you this is amazing so just just wrap it up for us right now what is in your heart right now Gracie and ugly you guys are so incredibly blessed and so thank you for sharing yet the story with us it means so much I mean dr. Siegel thank you as well this wonderful family everybody [Applause]

Channel: Good Morning America

Views: 23,836,525

Rating: 4.8864574 out of 5

Keywords: twins, sisters, adoption, China, reunion, GMA, ABC, News, separated, at, birth, heart, defects

Id: QHeNKMxsqYE

Length: 10min 45sec (645 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 11 2017

Reddit Comments

[u/alex_leishman]

There is no way they won't want to live together. This is going to be a tough situation for the families.

[u/weatherbys]

Plot twist: They aren't actually twins and everyone on that show is just racist.

[u/deeznipz]

"Who also coincidentally has a heart condition." They are identical twins... how is that coincidental?

[u/ohhitslauraa]

This is my gynecologists daughter. So neat!

[u/Rory1]

If anyone is interested in stuff like this, there is a pretty interesting documentary about twins who never knew about each other. One became a Hollywood actress and the other grew up in Europe. The documentary is being shot as they are finding about each other. Watched the doc on Netflix and found it kinda mind blowing.

Twinsters

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1txduZwL2Yg

[u/[deleted]]

lol the purple shirt dad is so awkward at 5:22 - "You guys DO look alike!", then proceeds to laugh like a goober and then rub the other girl's head like a puppy

[u/ThatBelligerentSloth]

Not even GMA can get Hamilton tickets

[u/wahwahwildcat]

The dad at the big moment, "YOU GUYS DO LOOK ALIKE!, HAHAHA"

bro can you not

[u/mtbaird5687]

Why did they have to broadcast this on live TV. And why did they dress them the same, creepy.