Father and Daughter Reunite on The Today Show

We're about to meet one woman who was adopted not once but twice, spent years in foster care and nearly gave up on finding her birth parents. Then a home DNA test changed everything. Watch. I was adopted as an infant in New York and my mom had schizophrenia so my father was taking care of her. That was until my father passed away from leukemia when I was six and my mother was trying to take care of me the best that she could but she really struggled. So I was then given to a foster care agency where I was a foster child from nine to twelve. When I turned twenty-one I decided I wanted to find my birth family. The only information that I was able to receive was that my mother was twenty at the time of my adoption and that she was abandoned by the father. So that was all I had to go on. I just hit lots of dead ends. I just kind of moved on and then when the DNA scene came into play, the fact that my daughter wanted me to find out my heritage kind of rekindled it. So we took a test and the test came back that I was Ashkenazi Jewish and Greek. The day that I opened my email to see that I possibly found my father, all of a sudden my heart dropped. Like it started sinking down and I called my daughter and said, oh my God. I started crying. It just was so intense because after searching for thirty years roughly, you just think it's never going to happen. And then all of a sudden, boom, it's just so intense and overwhelming. Please help me welcome Kim Fairbank. You didn't get a hit on your mom but you got a hit on, you see that thing that says father or son, you know it's not your son. One benefit of being a woman, you know. And so you reached out to him. Now what were you feeling in doing that? I was really nervous, extremely nervous. By email? It was an email at first, yes, to say hey this is a parent-child relationship match that came back and I think you're my father. And so was his first response by email too? It was. And what did he say? Say what? He was like, no, I don't have any children. Yeah, so. I said, well, can you think back? Maybe. Right. And he did. He thought back and said, well, I'll be damned, yes, there was a woman. There were some good times in Cape Cod. Exactly. So were you nervous about what his response was going to be? Extremely. Because being adopted can be a delicate thing because you don't know how people are going to respond. Yeah. And then did you speak on the phone? We did. We have been emailing and texting and we spoke on the phone. But you've never seen him live? No. We tried to do Skype, but it didn't work. Okay, so like today is going to be the first time that we're doing that in a minute. Have you ever found your birth mother? No. Okay, so this is your sole biological connection from before. You've got two kids, but from that level. And so what does it mean to you? Before we bring him out here, what does it mean to you to have reconnected with him? It's hard to even explain. It's just so intense because you think it's never going to happen. So to know that he's going to be sitting right next to me is just surreal. Yeah. Well, he's going to be sitting here in a minute. And when we come back, Kim's going to meet her birth father right before our very eyes for the first time. Don't go away. We're back now with 51-year-old Kim Fairbank, who has spent much of her life looking for her birth parents. A recent home DNA test gave her a direct match to her father. She did it through MyHeritage.com. They're the ones who brought us this story, so we're all grateful to them. Are you ready to meet him? I'm ready. Please welcome Kim's birth father, Tavlos. Thank you. Please have a seat. How are you feeling, Tavlos? Great. Thank you. Good. How about you, Kim? I'm good. Good. Now, Kim's fiance, Jerry, is sitting in the audience, and I think he's more emotional than any of us. He's emotional, Jerry. I don't know. I know. It's overwhelming. It is. And this is your wife, too, right, Janice? This is Tavlos' wife. All right. So, Tavlos, you originally took a DNA test. Why? My wife and I are both Greek, and we wanted to see who was more Greek. And boy, oh, boy, did you have a little surprise in there. So, you are all Greek, and also something else. Sardunian. Right? Yeah. So, you get the email first from Kim, and what's your first reaction? No. It didn't happen. Right. It's not me. No, it cannot be. But you did believe it. Is it true you saw a psychic at one point who told you what? My son was looking for me, and that was 35 years ago. And you didn't have any children as far as you knew? No. No, I knew I had a child that was put up for adoption, and I thought it was a male. So, Kim's birth mother had said, I'm pregnant. Yes. And I'm going to put the baby up for adoption. Correct. And you thought it was a boy. He went to Boston and was adopted by a dentist. So when she's... It's a story I heard. When she's calling you saying, it's a girl. Yeah. Were you... That's right. That's exactly it. And what... A girl with two grandchildren. Hey! And now, have you been in the hospital? Have you met your grandchildren? Would you like to meet them? Well, of course. Well, they're sitting right here in the audience. Oh, where are they? They're right here. Do you want to come over for a hug? Emma and Tate, come on. Meet Toddlers. Thank you, Kim. Thank you, guys. Am I blessed or what? So are you looking forward to time with a child and two grandchildren now? Yes. And Kim, what about you? Does the search for your birth mom continue or? It definitely continues. I've been searching for 20 years, so this will continue. Maybe she's watching. Maybe she is. We hope so. You don't know her name? No, I'm afraid it's one of those things. Okay. It's one of those things. But like if you saw her in a photo line-up, you might... I would recognize her in a heartbeat. All right. So if you know Toddlers and you think you might be Kim's birth mom, she's trying to find you, and you can definitely contact us at today.com slash Megan Today, and we will help make this reunion complete. Thank you for sharing this beautiful moment with us.