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

41-year-old Sarah DeMars never knew the identity of her biological parents. That is until very recently, after a DNA test changed everything. Watch. It was about, yeah, just over a month old when I was adopted. And yeah, we lived in Fort Wayne, 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 grandparent's 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 another person has taken a DNA test, some distant relative, some, you know. It was the Sunday night. I was lying in bed, and bing! I have an email from MyHeritage. It sort of scrolled down to this larger box where it had a picture of a man, and my husband said, it says they found your father. Wow. Sarah DeMars 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. Sarah, welcome. How you doing? Thank you. Yeah, yeah. I know you say you remember, like, pretty much your whole life, you knew that you were adopted. Yeah. Weren't that close with your adoptive family? I know. 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? MyHeritage.com. When it pops up in MyHeritage.com, your email box, you're thinking, this is another like 00.002 relative. Yeah. They found some seventh cousin. Yeah, you get a lot of those. And what did you see instead? I actually, I saw Vader, which, because we're registered in the Netherlands, the emails 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. But it said Vader, like Vader, like Darth Vader. Yeah, yeah. That's why. I am your father. Totally. You see, that's why it all connects. Yeah. So, you go to your husband, and you're like, does it say what I think it says? I literally fell out of bed, hit my head on the wall, and I'm running down the stairs with my computer in my pajamas and said, because he speaks Dutch fluently, and I said, am I crazy or does this say father? And he said, no, it says father. And we both were. Aw. Yeah. Because now you know. Now it's like, okay, it wasn't your mom, but it was your dad. Yeah. The wild and crazy one, according to what you had read. Well, according to what I had read, but yeah. Then we later find out maybe something different. 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 the way that it's all set up is, like my husband and I, he bought the kits. So his email address is registered with the kits or not his email address, but 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 late, has identified your husband as my father. And I would very much like to connect. And this is all of my contact information. Please let me know when we can speak further. Was it an interminable wait to get a reply? It was awful and they didn't reply and they didn't reply for days. And so of course then I went psychotic. I of course did the, you know, the, the, the detective in me went email, you know, looking for email addresses and Googling and Facebook 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 and 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 return the message and they spoke, but they have never seen each other in person. After this break, Sarah's going to meet her birth father in person for the first time. Don't go away. Sarah DeMars adopted 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 are you nervous? Yeah, I'm going to, I can't guarantee I'll be steady or not. Something unpredictable won't happen. I'm nervous for you, but I'm also super excited. I was just telling her, don't we have our love blanket around her right now? We have the love blanket around you. Without further ado, Arlen Metzger, come on out. Thank you for doing this love. Have a seat. That was exciting. All right, so can we just get to you, Arlen, how are you feeling? A little nervous. Yeah. Okay. You had no idea you had a daughter, another daughter. No ma'am, I did not. No, I did not. I didn't have any idea at all. You're living in Texas? Yes, ma'am. Okay. And so what was, 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, Arlen, this is a scam. And so. That's what you would think, right? 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 forties. So it couldn't be our sister because we're in our sixties. So it couldn't be our sister. And, uh, then my wife gets this email from Sarah and, uh, and she starts saying that she's related to us. And, uh, and the next thing I know, we talked, we, we ended up talking on the phone or through emails. And, uh, 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. So as it turns out, you had some fun in the mid 1970s. Yes. I was between the Navy and the army. I'd gotten out of the Navy. And at that time, 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, well, it said, no, no, but it said it described 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 she thought it was some other guy. I think so, but you two, I love it because some of these reunions can be tough. And you immediately told her to call you dad. Yeah. Five minutes. She called me Arlen and I, and I said, honey, do me a favor. Just call me dad. We talk. Oh, this is very weird because we talk all the time. Right. You talk and you, you apparently look a lot like your mom. She does. And you look like him. Yeah. You two look alike. Yeah. 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 he could have said, I didn't want to do this. But this all started with an idea after your son Zander was missing having a grandpa. Yeah. And so you now have two additional grandchildren. That gives us 12. Zander and Max. Would you like to meet them? I'd love to. Let's meet your grandchildren. They're nervous. Is that exciting to meet grandpa? Yeah. They were really angry yesterday that they couldn't meet you. Immediately getting off the plane. Where's grandpa? I hope you guys have a wonderful life together. Thank you so much for sharing this beautiful moment with us.