It makes the perfect plot for a work of fiction: two babies, identical and born within minutes of each other, separated at birth and never to know the other was to exist. Think The Parent Trap.
But Molly Sinert discovered she was living this fictional-sounding scenario as a reality, and it was all thanks to some confusing DNA results.
Molly was born in South Korea and was adopted by an American family, growing up in Florida.
Little did she know that several thousands of miles away, also in America, her identical twin, Emily Bushnell, was growing up in Philadelphia.
Molly and Emily were each immersed in their own separate childhoods, having no idea that they even had blood siblings, let alone an identical twin.
It was only when Emily’s 11-year-old daughter pressed her to look into her ancestry that all was revealed.
In an ABC News interview, Isabel, Emily’s daughter, explained:
“I wanted to do the DNA test because she was adopted. I wanted to find out if I had more family on her side.”
Emily didn’t like the idea of taking the DNA test, so she let Isabel take one, knowing that she would still get plenty of answers from her daughter.
In a twist of fate, Isabel received her results almost at the same time as Molly, in Florida, who had also taken a DNA test.
Almost simultaneously, both twins pieced together the information that led to their life-changing discovery.
Molly was confused initially, wondering whether the DNA test might have been faulty. She recalled:
“I clicked on the close relative and I didn’t understand it. [It said] ‘you share 49.96% DNA with this person. We predict that she’s your daughter’. This is obviously not right, because I’ve never gone into labor, I don’t have children.”
But once the news had sunk in, Molly realized she didn’t have a daughter… she had an identical twin.
This was confirmed when she reached out to Isabel on the DNA testing website, curious to know what her relationship with her 49.96% match could be.
When Isabel replied with a brief explanation of her mom’s history and her birth date, it was confirmed: Molly was speaking to her twin sister’s daughter.
With that knowledge, she said, “a hole was immediately filled in my heart”.
She added:
“Although I have family who love me and adore me and have been absolutely wonderful, there was always a feeling of disconnection. Finding out that I had an identical twin sister just made everything so clear. It all makes sense.”
The twins soon made contact, and it wasn’t long until they discovered that, while they had led separate lives, there were many similar aspects of their childhoods that some would liken to “twin instinct”.
For instance, in their separate high school proms, both twins wore beaded dresses with similar-style necklaces and almost identical hairdos.
The pair desperately wanted to be closer – but they held off on video chatting.
They both knew it would be more special to meet in person.
And that’s exactly what they did on their 36th birthday, on an occasion that neither will forget.
Even to this day, 36 years later, Molly and Emily are no closer to discovering why they were separated at birth and later adopted by American families.
As a result, the comments section had a go at adoption agencies.
“I know that these reunions are bitter-sweet, but I really hate that adoption agencies separate siblings at all, let alone twins. It’s a horrible thing to do.”
Says one viewer, while another went,
“I really wish adoption agencies were more up front with adoptive families about known siblings. It’s just cruel to separate twins.”
They do have a point.
Still, this made for a wonderful reunion.
That mysterious “twin thing” played off for these two.
All they need to know now is why they were separated all those years ago.
The twins are still proud of their heritage and plan to visit South Korea together in the near future.
Watch their amazing story in the video below!
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